Of Shadows And Dust
by Archdruid-Sephiroth
Summary: An Esper on the path of self-discovery gets caught up in a race to save her world of origin, and the world she grew up on. Slight AU but mostly not. Multiple worlds. OC x Aeris, rated for Violence, Yuri/Shoujo-ai and of course Cid's Mouth. FF6 / FF7AC
1. Dark Awakening

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Final Fantasy 6 or 7, or any of its characters, or locations, etc, etc… you know the drill.

This is my third attempt to do the rewrite for this story. I've learned a lot since I began this piece, so I hope you enjoy it.

**WARNINGS:** Contains Adult Language, Adult Content, Adult Situations, Violence (sometimes of a graphic nature) and Yuri / Shoujo-ai . Reader discretion is advised.

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Archdruid Sephiroth Presents**

**A Final Fantasy VI and VII Cross Over**

**Of Shadows and Dust

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**Act I: The End is the Beginning is the End

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**Prologue: The Dark World**

A dark storm began to descend upon the city, a weekly visitor that ravaged all in its path, and once more the population would have to hide below surface and hope that the damage was not severe. Although these storms haven't been that destructive for a long time, 2000 years of good instinct is not something the people can ignore. Long ago, the storms would tear down weaker structures with alarming ease, and it was not uncommon for entire blocks to be "reorganized" as a result. But nowadays, downed signposts, a few damaged traffic lights and some ravaged trees would be the extent of it.

In the year 2850, what was thought to be impossible became true… World War III. The United States spanned the entirety of North and South America as well as many Pacific Islands and parts of Africa. The new German Empire, The Fourth Reich, managed to overtake all of Europe, most of Africa, parts of Asia and parts of Australia. While the Empire of the Sun, owned the majority of Asia. It was a three-way war started over the revival of Imperialism, and Japan was winning the war. In a last ditch effort to survive; the Fourth Reich unleashed its nuclear arsenal against the other two empires. The resultant counterstrikes ravaged the world and over 6 billion people lost their lives in the nuclear holocaust, and the fallout that was the inevitable result.

The Nuclear Winter hit hard. Millions of survivors lost their lives to the myriad of diseases that sprang forth as a result of the radiation. Riots over dwindling food supplies and drinkable water took an even greater toll upon the already beleaguered population. Mankind struggled to survive though the frozen winters and the only somewhat warmer summers. Soon followed the Dread Storms, massive bands of contaminated rain and 200mph winds ravaged the world again and again. They lashed at the land, destroying everything they touched. The sky during these storms was so dark, you could see little but swirling fields of blackness that seemed to form twisted faces in agony and skull-like death's heads screaming in torment. The winds howled fiercely and sometimes… just sometimes… the sky itself sounded as if it was moaning in pain and torment. Some say that these storms are the planet's nightmares and torment made manifest, and many were driven mad by the planets cries. The people learned to hide underground during such storms, in fear of being maimed by flying debris or going completely insane from the moans of the tormented skies.

Two thousand years later, the Nuclear Winter was finally beginning to ease, but the people still feared the Dread Storms. Now as civilization was being rebuilt, the old fears simply would not die. However, there was one young girl among the populace of Neo Los Angeles that didn't fear the storms, they instead intrigued her.

As the storm began to settle over the city and the madness that was the sky twisted in its chaotic pantomime, she stared though the window in awe. There was no rain this time, but the winds began to quicken and the sky moaned in pain, the sound echoing like thunder across the abandoned streets. It sent shivers up her spine and caused gooseflesh to manifest all over her body. In her heart she felt an ache, almost as if she felt the planet's misery. It was the first time she ever felt this, and it was scaring her. Her name was Kyrie Akani.

She stood only 5' 2" tall and weighted and unbelievable 70 lbs soaking wet. She wasn't anorexic by any means, bearing an almost perfect figure with a bust that lay somewhere in the upper side of the C category. Her skin was somewhat pale but flawless. Her hair has an almost crystalline feel to it, ebony black and reaching down to her backside. Her bangs were also long but not nearly, curving around her face and stopping below the chin. She kept her hair tied back with a thin dark blue ribbon that trailed along the length of it ending halfway to the tips. Most striking were her eyes. Although it was obvious she was Japanese, her eyes only hinted her heritage. Their color was a beautiful blue seen only in the purest Star Sapphires, and they seemed to give off their own light. She wore blue jean shorts reaching about mid thigh, and a black t-shirt without any writing that left her midriff exposed. She didn't wear socks but wore high top sneakers that were also black.

Kyrie always knew she was different. At age 12, she accidentally knocked over a bookshelf in the library. She had fallen to the ground and the shelf was falling at her. It would have easily crushed her petite body, and she knew it. In fear she threw her arms over her face and screamed. Suddenly, the bookshelf stopped falling. She peeked out from behind her arms seeing the bookshelf at an angle nearly 60 degrees off of the vertical with books hanging out of it apparently falling, but nothing was moving as if it everything around her had become frozen in time. Quickly she scrambled out from under it and leaned against the wall in a sitting position. The shelf remained suspended for another 20 seconds before it fell over at last.

After that incident, she began to experiment with her newfound ability. She learned to control it with a lot of practice. At first she could only move small light objects with her mind, but she graduated quickly to mentally rearranging her furniture. She could literally lift tons with her mind, although she couldn't even lift her own weight with her arms. Mentally, she realized she was quite powerful. But physically, she was very weak and fragile.

During her training, she discovered she had other talents as well. She accidentally started a fire in her apartment after throwing a fit of rage over her performance, but somehow managed to extinguish it with the same mental energy. Fire and then Ice. She practiced with that ability as well and eventually learned that she could control all four of the primary elements; Wind, Water, Earth and Fire. Mixing them, she discovered other powers; creating electrical energy, healing wounds suffered, and cleansing diseases. She learned that she could even manipulate gravity and time itself to a degree. All the while wondering just how she managed to acquire such power. She realized that others may try to take advantage of her or fear her for her unique gifts, so she kept them as secret as possible… never once sharing her discoveries with another living soul.

Now 16 years old, she began to feel the torment of the planet in her heart. A question burned her to her very soul demanding an answer...

"What am I!" she screamed out as tears began to stream down her face. She felt the misery the world suffered throughout the centuries, emanating from the vicious storm that whipped though the city. Inwardly, she felt as if she were somehow impure, like the world itself. Visions of destruction and death plagued her mind, assaulted her senses and the pain began to manifest within her. Unable to withstand the sudden mental and physical deluge, she finally dropped to her knees and began to cry. As she did so, the twisted faces and apparitions within the Dread Storm began to fade away as if in sympathy to her plight. The moans that were once prominent and whispers of torment were dying off, being replaced by a low rumble of thunder, and her pain began to ease. Then at long last, the rain began to fall. Little did this young woman know, but this would be the last time in history that a Dread Storm had occurred.

As the weather changed, she looked out the window again, seeing the final change in the storm. The pain she felt was gone, the visions were gone from her mind and her body sighed in relief. She had watched many such storms in the past but never did they affect her like this… never did the show her the planet's torment… and never once did they change into normal thunderstorms.

Kyrie, still kneeling, stared out the window as she unconsciously fiddled with the pendant worn on her silver chain. The pendant was a small crystal slightly larger than a fingernail. It was clear like a diamond and sparkled like one, but sometimes it glowed blue. It was an interesting curiosity left by her long dead mother, a mother she never knew.

As she wiped away her tears one her left hand, she felt a deep determination growing inside her. "One day, I'll find out what I am. I won't stop until I know the truth, even if it takes my entire lifetime."

It would only take Kyrie a week to learn what she truly was. And it was a truth that would change her… forever.

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**I: Dark Awakening

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Three days after the storm Kyrie was walking home from the library with a few books she decided were interesting. She was beginning to realize now that her mental powers were in reality the dread destructive force known as magic. Long ago, magic was a very prominent force in the universe, but as technology rose, magic began to fade. As a result many creatures devoted to magic including Dragons and Elves began to disappear. Many still believe that as long as the world itself exists, magic will always exist with it and those creatures can never truly die.

She thought about this, realizing that World War III may just have been the first trigger to help along the revival of magic. Strangely though, no other human being seemed to have the powers she did. Of course if any did exist, chances are they were also trying to conceal their powers. Trying to find such individuals would be a daunting task.

As she walked home, she had to travel though a part of Neo-LA that had not yet been reconstructed. The twisted buildings brought upon her a sense of fear and anxiety that she couldn't ignore. The ground was uneven and the buildings looked burned out as if a great blowtorch was turned against them… at least where there still were buildings. Many more in the sector were torn down by dread storms, and other simply disintegrated due to erosion and entropy.

Los Angeles had been a primary target of the Fourth Reich and was one of the first cities to be hit. This ruined sector was the only place left in the city where the treachery of that insane organization still lingered on… a testament to the power of nuclear weaponry and a reminder of the horrors that followed. Kyrie had read about these horrors and could not believe that anyone could have survived as well as they had…

Kyrie decided it would best not to linger here neither physically nor mentally, and so began to move through the sector with all due haste. Although it was doubtful anything even lived in this area considering its dire condition and the obviously precarious nature of the buildings themselves, it was a risk she didn't want to take. As dark as it had become, it was rather eerie and it almost felt as if the ghosts of so many years ago had there eyes upon her, ready to grasp at her with wraithlike hands. The entire situation was sending chills down her spine. She was so fearful of this place that never once did she glance behind her as she quickly made her way though the zone… that was her greatest mistake. As she neared the edge of the sector, she felt a sense of relief. Finally, she was near familiar territory and it would only be a few more blocks before she reached the bus station. She took another step forward but never felt her foot touch down. Her world spun for a second and she barely recognized the pain in the back of her head before she saw herself falling. Everything was black before she hit the concrete.

* * *

Hours later, she began to awaken. Slowly at first, her eyes opened and immediately she wished they hadn't. She had a massive headache and her body felt disconnected, as if someone forgot to connect a few nerves in her head. Her eyes closed immediately and she began to move. She kneeled, not paying attention to her surroundings and slid a hand up to her left temple. There her fingers contacted a foreign object. It was round like a disk, smooth and cold to the touch. It was attached there somehow and she tried to pull it off thinking it was some kind of large insect but it held fast and delivered a sharp pain into her head. She let out a short cry of pain before letting go of it.

Kyrie's opened and she began to take in the room. It was very small, no bigger than maybe eight feet square on a side and the walls were painted black. A small light, similar to a caged work light, hung from the ceiling and cast a dull glow over the room. There were three metal folding chairs against a wall and what appeared to be an examination table against the other. The room didn't appear to have doors or windows or even air vents making it feel way to close for her comfort. Although she wasn't claustrophobic, she didn't like confined spaces like this. She tried to stand up, but felt too dizzy to hold her balance so she collapsed back to a half kneeling, half sitting position. As she did so, she realized her sneakers were gone.

Kyrie looked around the room wondering where they went when suddenly one of the walls seemed to shimmer for a second. A tall man entered the room, appearing to phase right though the wall. Kyrie wasn't sure what his purpose was, but she did know it would not be a good one as this was likely the person who rendered her unconscious on the street. She backed against the wall away from him feeling a twinge of fear.

He was nearly six feet tall with blonde hair tied back tightly and eyes that were almost lifelessly black. He wore a dark suit and tie with a white button down shirt under his suit coat. The overall look made him appear to be a federal agent but she didn't see any form of identification badge on him, nor was he wearing a wire on his ear.

"Well hello Kyrie," he said. "Nice to see you are awake. I was beginning to wonder if I over did it some."

Kyrie eyed him suspiciously. "How do you know who I am?"

"Oh I know more than you think," he replied, "but I won't get into the details of how I do."

"What do you want from me?"

He seemed to smile briefly before beginning to walk towards her. "I want to be just as powerful as you. You see, it would appear that magic just might be making a comeback into this world after all, and I have been at the forefront of this new revolution, you see. I am something of a scientist, an Arcanologist if you will, studying the intricate weaves of power and the ebb and tide of that mystical force that for unknown reasons, seems to have been gifted to you. At least that is how it appears."

"Come again?"

"To put it quite frankly Miss Akani, I know all about you. More about you than any man should, and as a result I see the potential in your study that others would quite easily overlook. You can enhance my research an entire order of magnitude and help me accomplish in mere days what would take months or even years to alone. Of course the cost of this research will undoubtedly be your life, but we scientists understand that greatness requires sacrifice. You, Miss Akani, are going to be far more famous in death then you ever would ever be in life."

Kyrie understood him all too well. As she explored her capabilities and talents, she knew of their potential as a dreadful weapon. She also knew that those very same talents would land her in just this situation someday. Still, with her talents she wasn't worried about it at all. If this idiot wanted to sample her spell power, then he was about to receive a taste for himself, though she had no intention of killing him. She really only wanted to scare him. Inwardly she charged up electrical energy in preparation for a powerful bolt of lightning to jolt him out of his god complex, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in her mind, almost enough to make her scream. The energy dissipated before even the minutest spark of energy could be produced, and she heard a beep from the device on her temple.

He seemed to laugh at her attempt. "Foolish girl, I already took care of that. You see, I have been watching you for a while now," his voice grew almost cold, "and I know about you. I know what you can do, so I wasn't going to take any chances. The device on your temple sends a small electrical charge into your mind whenever you attempt to use your gifts. This has the obvious effect of shattering your concentration effectively preventing you from using your talents against me."

Kyrie's heart began to race. She knew she wasn't strong enough physically to resist what was going to happen to her. Her mind raced for options but without the ability to use magic she was outmatched.

Alexander began to walk closer. "I've been watching you grow since age nine, studying your movements, your triumphs and failures. It was I who made the bookshelves fall in the library that fateful day, and I must say although it seemed like an awful risk at the time, it paid off brilliantly. Now after seven years, it is finally time to get a closer look at what makes you tick."

The man brought himself very close to her almost touching her, then Kyrie did the only thing she could think to do, she slapped him hard.

Alexander looked rather annoyed at her feeble attempt to keep him away. He grabbed her hand right hand with his left after the slap and said, "Erste Schmerzan." Pain surged though her head fiercely a moment later causing her to scream in agony, the device held this torment for six seconds before it beeped once and stopped. She struggled to catch her breath as he grabbed her by the chin and made her look up at him.

"Not wise," he said. "Resist and I make it hurt even more. The device can be commanded to send a strong electrical charge into your head. It has five settings; you just felt the very first one. Continue to resist and you will get to experience all of them."

"Who… who are you," she demanded weakly, still trying to teach herself to breathe without getting dizzy.

"Well I suppose you have a right to know," he whispered as he gently and slowly traced a line along her chin to the back of her head. "My name is Alexander Nash. I like you Miss Akani. I seldom admit to people how I feel about them, but I'll make an exception in your case. You are a vision of absolute perfection which is why I am somewhat reluctant to continue my research considering what will likely become of you."

A tear fell from Kyrie's right eye. "Please…" she whispered, "don't do this."

"I'm truly sorry my dear, but if mankind is going to find a way to survive in this new millennia, sacrifices must be made. Why… you should be honored! Your death will promote the continuation of our race!" He turned from her towards the wall he entered from and said, "Zeigen." One of the walls faded away into a set of doors. "Please don't make this harder on yourself, just cooperate and things will be so much less painful for you."

He led her though the doors into a modest room that seems to have been converted into a laboratory of sorts. Off to her right she saw a large computer system with six monitors. The center of the room was dominated by a metallic cylinder in its center lying on an angle about 20 degrees off the horizontal. As they approached it, she realized that the cylinder was opened. Inside there were wires and needles of varying size. Instantly they retracted into the sides of the cylinder but the holes in which they hid were visible. She really didn't want to get into that thing but she knew he would force her into it.

Finally he let go of her wrist. "Now disrobe."

"What?" Kyrie questioned, hoping she didn't hear him right.

He seemed annoyed for a moment. "I said take off your clothing. I won't ask again."

"No." she replied sharply. It was bad enough he wanted to do some weird experiment on her, she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of seeing her naked and vulnerable.

"Zweiter Schmerz," he said casually and the device to delivered another painful shock into her mind. This one drove her to her knees and made the room spin for a moment. After about 10 seconds of this torture, the device stopped and beeped twice.

"That was level two. Care to experience level three?"

Tears feel from her face as she realized she had no choice in the matter any longer. This madman had all the power here. With out a word and unable to look at him, she stood up and began to undress. Her T-shirt was first, then her shorts. She paused a moment before removing the clasp of her bra.

"Can we move along please? I've much to do."

A flush of red began to come over her face as she dropped the bra to the floor and finally slipped out of her panties. She crossed her arms over her chest keeping her eyes at the floor.

"Oh come now," Nash groaned. "I'm a doctor, not a voyeur. I've seen plenty of people naked before and although you are the best looking in the nude I have ever seen, I do have my morals… such as they are. I've no intention of doing anything untoward to such a vulnerable girl such as you. Now, get in the cylinder. We're wasting precious time."

Kyrie grudgingly obeyed, stepping onto the cylinder. Once she lied down she heard several short beeps before her ankles and wrists were securely strapped down automatically. She pulled against them but was unable to budge them even the slightest. The cylinder began to close around her but stopped at about half way. That is when her torment truly began. The needles fired out of the holes in the cylinder into her supple flesh. They struck many parts of her; they pierced her arms and legs, burrowed into her spine, punched into her temples, and pierced her stomach and chest. More buried themselves into her neck, the lower parts of her breasts, just below her naval, and just above her apex. The shock of having nearly forty needles shot into her simultaneously caused her to scream in agony… the sound resonated off of the inside of the cylinder leaving her deafened for a moment. Her pain only intensitved as the needles began their work, drawing some fluids from her body while introducing others into it. The invaders twitched and writhed as the fluids traveled along them to some unseen location.

When Kyrie managed to catch her breath and stop screaming she yelled out, "What are you doing to me?"

"It's quite complicated really," he began. "First off I need samples of all of your bodily fluids; blood, urine, lactations, free water in your cells and a few I don't care to mention. In addition I do need you alive for a while so nutrients and saline are also being added to your body to keep your nourished and prevent dehydration."

Kyrie felt the pain lessening only to realize she was beginning to not feel much of anything. Her vision blurred slightly and she felt woozy and light headed.

"The saline solution is laced with a mild anesthetic to reduce the pain from having all those needles in your body… and to make you more docile and controllable."

"I'll show you control," she grunted as she tried to regain her focus and summon magical energy. Again she was denied by the device that was inducing her headaches.

As if even more annoyed Alexander called out "Drittens Schmerz" causing the device to deliver a much more massive electrical shock lasting a full 12 seconds. It then beeped three times. When it was over she felt sick and nearly blacked out but somehow managed to stay conscious and keep from throwing up.

"Not surprisingly," he began, "you have but two more levels to experience. I wish you would cooperate… Now if you'll excuse me, I need to change into my working clothes." She barely heard the footsteps of him leaving as the sides of the Cylinder closed around her.

Kyrie hated tight spaces, and found it difficult to breathe. Thankfully the mild claustrophobic feelings also seemed to be lessened by the drugs surging though the tubes and into her bloodstream. Although the pain made it difficult to relax, she eventually passed out from sheer exhaustion.

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For several days, she remained there, with the tubes connected to her body. She moved little with the exception of the occasional twitch. She felt progressively weaker as the machine continued its job, and she soon realized that her life was ever so slowly being drained from her. She had begun to become desperate and tried to stop the experiment by thrashing madly back and forth in the cylinder in a futile attempt to rip the tubes out of her. She knew doing so would undoubtedly cause her more pain but she didn't care… this had to end before she went insane in this devil's machine.

She only succeeded in causing herself more pain. Alexander stopped her activities by yelling out Vierten Schmerz" which cause the device to go to level four. The resultant pain caused her to black out for over 12 hours.

Finally after five days of lying in this modern Iron Maiden and experiencing pain she wouldn't wish upon her worst enemies, the tubes tore themselves out of her body. The sudden shock of their removal rendered her unconscious again. She woke up a few hours later back in the small black room on the examination table, and still naked. She wasn't tied down or otherwise restrained, but her weakened state prevented her from going anywhere anyway. As she opened her eyes, her body didn't hurt so much anymore. Point of fact, she didn't feel much of anything as the lingering effects of the drugs in her body made her feel lightheaded and quite disoriented. Once her senses managed to correct themselves for the most part, she examined herself for lingering damage.

She was lying on her side curled up as if to hide her nakedness. There were small red marks everywhere the needles were but they were much smaller than the large gauge of the needles that turned her into the human pincushion for five days. Kyrie always healed quickly and never scarred. She never understood why she healed so fast.

Her posture tightened as a bit of the pain returned and tear escaped her eye. Kyrie may not have actually been raped or molested by this guy, but in many ways, what he did to her was no different. Her eyes faced forward to see the man who had become her personal Satan sitting on a chair in the room with a clipboard seemingly checking information over as if the act of violating human life was just another day at the office for him. He disgusted her in ways she couldn't even begin to explain.

"Impressive," he whispered as if he were talking to someone. "Everything she's been though in the device and she's somehow still alive and healing quickly to boot. Humph, if my calculations and observations are correct, then something is definitely different about her physiology." He tuned to another page. "What's this? She has a quadruple helix? That should not even be possible…sixteen unidentified amino proteins and forty-six quartets of chromosomes? Not twenty-three? How is that even possible? Unless … mein gott…." His eyes left the clipboard and focused on her, lifeless black locking onto harmonic blue. The expression on his face was one of utter shock. "…she's not human at all!"

As he stood up, walking towards her again, the fear in her heart erupted and she curled tighter… Suddenly, deep within her she felt a change, as if something suddenly shifted and reasserted itself. His footsteps came closer and something within her snapped.

"Get away from me!" she screamed and when she did so a wave of force emitted from her throwing him back against the wall with great force.

He collided with the wall and slid down. He shook his head out and was now completely flabbergasted.

"How? The device should have prevented that!" He stood back up again. "I have control here! Fünfter Schmerz!"

The device struck Kyrie with the most powerful blast of electrical energy it could muster and she screamed in pain. Her body curled tightly as she grabbed her head but with shear determination she struggled though it. Her body writhed for a moment and curled up as she fought the urge to black out. When the device shut off 20 seconds later her eyes opened, but Alexander didn't seen weakness in them. The blue of her eyes eemed more defined and began to glow casting a dull light on her face and the table itself.

"Stop it!" she yelled, and Blondie once again was slammed into the wall, this time held up three feet in the air. She shifted to a sitting position then dropped to the floor standing none too steady as she leaned on the table for support. He ordered the device to hit her again and it complied. Kyrie shrieked again and threw her head back, but when the pain hit her, she turned her power inward then out again all at once causing the device to explode off of her head as a blue aura erupted around her briefly. Blood trickled from the damaged temple.

She dropped into a kneeling position holding the left side of her head as blood dripped from the now opened wound. Her eyes focused on him, nothing but anger visible on her face. The sapphire orbs flashed as he was hit with yet another powerful wave that stuck with enough force to crack three of his ribs.

He grunted in pain and coughed up gouts of blood. "Stop!" he pleaded. "I'm sorry! I only did what was necessary! These are desperate times for us! You can't possibly hold these actions against me can you?"

Kyrie stood up unsteadily. The blood from her damaged temple was flowing freely and traced down her shoulder, left breast and was making its way down her stomach. She ignored it in favor of continuing her assault.

"Watch me!" she yelled, and her eyes flashed again causing more damage to Blondie's already wounded chest. As she continued making her way closer, silver stands began creeping into her hair. Her aura reappeared and began to become more pronounced, throwing off enough light to illuminate the walls around her. "I owe you pain," she growled as she approached. The pendant around her neck began to glow blue, the same color as her aura. It also appeared to be cracking.

"Please!" Alexander cried.

"And how many times did I say that? You had your chance to act civilized; now you can suffer as I have!" She reached him and placed a hand on his chest. A red glow covered him as she continued, "Take my pain a thousand fold."

Suddenly, wounds erupted all over his body. Large holes like the ones he had inflicted on her showed up all over him quickly bleeding him out. He shrieked in agony as the piercing pain of over thirty-thousand needles tore into his body. He twitched as if pressure was building up inside him until his wounds exploded out, instantly killing him.

The splatter of hot blood against her skin instantly brought her back to her senses. She fell backwards and hit the examination table. As her mind became more focused, realization hit her. She saw what was left of the body and a shriek escaped her mouth as she threw her hands up to it. Pieces of him dripped everywhere; they slid down the walls leaving streaks of blood, they hung from the nearby chairs, cracked bones lay in a pile of torn flesh, blood dripped from the light bathing the room in red, and everything smelled of blood.

Tears streamed from her eyes as she realized what precisely she allowed herself to do. He tortured her but now, she was a murderer, and her mind couldn't accept the fact that she had killed in anger.

"I… I did this…" she whispered. "I killed him…" She then dropped to her knees and started sobbing. Kyrie had promised herself she would not kill another human being with her powers; to do so was an abuse of such power that would corrupt her for all time. Now kneeling in this dark room and covered in blood, she had broken that vow and created a black mark upon her soul she would never be rid of.

Blue energy pooled around her as she screamed out in misery. He drove her to this; he bled her, tortured her, used her, and in doing so turned her into a monster, exactly what she didn't want. She would never rid herself of the guilt of murder, never feel innocent again. Her energy exploded around her causing the bottom level of the structure to blow outwards with great force. The building was old and already falling apart, this final blast was the last straw for it. As falling debris rained around Kyrie, she realized she would not be able to live with what she had done... Steel supports and concrete chunks rained down around her… her head bowed and she trembled, waiting for her death...

… but it never came… For the next 24 hours she lay in darkness under the destroyed building. The room held together for the most part but the debris invaded all four corners of the room, her already small space was cut in half. Hating tight places she stood up, deciding she would find a way out but only hit her head on the lowered ceiling. Dropping her to knees again, she felt true fear.

"I… I've got to get out of here…"

She frantically searched around, but the debris covered everything, the door was gone, buried under who knows how much rock and steel. Kyrie tried to conjure up enough energy to move it but her fear precluded the idea of concentrating on her gifts. Unable to free herself, her mind began to race; would she ever see the light of day again? How much air was left? Is she already dead? Was this her version of hell?

She began to scream, hoping someone would hear her. But then, she felt like she couldn't breathe. Kyrie held herself crying, trying to scream for someone to release her from this prison of iron and stone. Her discomfort from being in tight places had exploded into full-blown claustrophobia thanks in no small part to the torment inflicted upon her by Doctor Alexander Nash. With no recourse, she stayed there, kneeling in her own prison…

* * *

Eventually she was found, still covered in dried blood and nearly catatonic. They rushed her to the local hospital where she was treated, though physically she was fine, mentally she was decimated.

Hours later, she sat on the bed in a hospital gown, staring out the window at the darkened sky, realizing a storm was brewing. In her mind, she fought her conscience. She knew that Nash deserved to die for what he did to her, but she didn't have the right to kill him. What he did to her, using her for insane and immoral research was wrong but in her mind, she became the evil one. He turned her into a murderer, and she allowed him to do it.

Kyrie knew that the emotional scars of what had happened to her would be with her forever, her cross to bear for the rest of her life. Nash's troubles were over.

"He deserved it… didn't he?" she whispered to her self. "You can't just kidnap whoever you want… use them… and turn them in Guinea Pigs when it suits you… right?"

"…right …?"

As she fought with her mind, the storm began. She didn't know if she would ever recover from this experience... though the pain in her body was numbed, the pain in her soul she knew would take a long time to fade…

…assuming it ever would.

**

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End of Chapter I

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**

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"

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_

**A/N:** Once upon a time, I was younger and somewhat foolish… I got obsessed with the world of Final Fantasy VI, and later VII. I still am obviously, otherwise Archdruid Sephiroth would not be my namesake on virtually everything I do or write online.

The idea of the character of Kyrie was directly attributed to my fascination with the character of Terra Branford. Here was a tragic character who was born half Esper and half Human, forced to survive in a world where she was used from day one as a potential weapon.

Kyrie herself has been used in several RPG's I've played in, ran myself and created. Always, she was a powerful magic user of Esperian origin. However, it was rare that I made her a lesbian. Doing so in this story seemed appropriate considering her experience with Alexander Nash.

In the original version of the first chapter, he actually did rape her. However I decided that in the first rewrite, that I'd change that. Just as in this version he was a scientist obsessed with reviving magic, and mastering the dread destructive force himself. He also wanted to unlock that potential in humanity, seeing it as the only way to help the human race survive. Kyrie's experience taught her that men were untrustworthy and evil, making her afraid of them on a primal level.

My idea to get her involved with Aeris stemmed from the fact that in many ways, Kyrie sees Aeris as what she herself should have become.

I usually don't have OC's as a main character, normally as supporting characters in other stories (see Kenjiro in Bloodlust for an example). But this is a story I've been playing with for over 10 years now…

… this is my obsession… and I hope you enjoy it.

**Archdruid Sephiroth 1/28/11**


	2. A Helping Hand

**A/N:** So far so good I think. This is the redone second chapter. If you have re-read chapter 1 yet, please do so.

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**II: A Helping Hand

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**

About a day later, Kyrie lay in her bed feeling a little better. Already she was making headway in trying to put the incident behind her and thought instead about finding answers to all her previous questions. As she lay in bed, she tried to discern what Nash had mentioned. He had said she wasn't human, but was that true, or was that just more of his madness on the surface?

"_She has a quadruple helix? That should not even be possible... sixteen unidentified amino proteins and forty-six quartets of chromosomes? Not twenty-three? How is that even possible? Unless … my god… she's not human at all!"_

Kyrie knew little about genetics, they barely touched on it in her life sciences class in high school. Based on what he said though, it seemed obvious that she wasn't… but then, why did she look human?

A light knock at the door stirred her out of her thoughts. "Come in," she said gingerly. Wondering who would come see her. Last she checked she didn't have any real friends. Sure her classmates might wonder about her, but chances are they wouldn't care in the end. Perhaps it was the police again, trying to get her to talk about what happened to her. She hated the idea of having her darkest hour picked apart by them. If they were going to charge her with murder, she wished they'd do it and get it over with.

But it wasn't the cops. Instead, a young looking woman walked into the room wearing a cloak and hood. Her face could be seen underneath, and it was pale like driven snow. Her hair was also very light in color, blonde but so light it was almost white. Her eyes were light blue and her facial structure suggested someone not much older than her. As she took off the hood, she could see that her eyes held wisdom in them that could not exist in someone who looks as young as she. To Kyrie, she was strangely dressed, almost screaming 'eccentric'.

She smiled at Kyrie warmly. "Hello," the girl said. "I'm glad to see you are in better spirits."

Kyrie sighed, she was probably a counselor of some kind. "Look," Kyrie said, getting to the point, "if you are some kind of trauma specialist, then I'm not in the mood. I'm fine… really." But Kyrie knew that if this was indeed someone from a support network, she would not be so easily swayed. Inwardly she wondered what she would have to do to get rid of her.

"You needn't worry," she replied. "I'm not a social worker or anything of the sort. Actually I'm someone who can help you with your… other problem."

Kyrie raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "What other problem?" Kyrie looked at her apprehensively, wondering how much she knew about her. She had taken great pains to hide her abilities from the world, but obviously she didn't hide them well enough if Nash knew about her powers.

"Specifically, your difficult search for answers about who you are," she replied.

Kyrie's eyes widened with surprise. "How could you possibly know anything about that? I've never met you before in my life. Who are you?"

"The better question is 'how can I help?'" She pulled up a chair and took off her cloak. Beyond, she was wearing loose fitting clothing that didn't cover a whole lot. To Kyrie, it reminded her of the type of clothing a sorceress would wear in a fantasy setting, though she also wore some light armor along with it. It was now evident in direct light that her hair did in fact have some blonde in it but it was so light it was only barely noticeable. "First let me introduce myself. My name is Celes Chere."

Kyrie looked at her quizzically; she didn't recognize the name at all. "You certainly don't look like you're from around here." Inwardly, she wondered if she wasn't human either.

"I'm not," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "Actually I'm not even from your world." Seeing Kyrie's confusion she pressed forward. "Tell me Kyrie, do you believe the existence of alternate realities?"

Kyrie nodded to her. At least the conversation would be interesting. This girl was obviously not afraid to breach subjects that would normally get her thrown into a funny farm. "Actually, yes I do. I read about them in some of the books I was using for my research. The idea of parallel universes intrigues me, but they seem so implausible from a scientific standpoint. Still such things require a bit of faith, I think."

Celes nodded and then continued. "Indeed they do. You will find that much about magic itself require faith far more than science. I can vouch for the existence of alternate reality as I am from one of those realms. My world was once a world vibrant with life and full of the energy you wield… a beautiful land of rolling hills, great mountains and tall forests… it was full of life and relatively peaceful."

"What happened to it?" Kyrie was no longer feigning interest realizing this girl could bring her closer to her answers. Though she was talking about esoteric subjects she barely understood, this Celes, as she called herself, seemed knowledgeable about magic in ways that Kyrie couldn't even begin to breach.

"There was a great war," Celes began. "A madman named Kefka Palazzo, usurped the power of deific beings and wanted to become a god himself. He desired to build a great monument to Non-Existence, and he almost succeeded. After his death, magic disappeared from our world forever because the deific beings no longer existed. I was one of many that the Empire he originally worked under experimented on with what they called Magi-Tek. As a result of their experiments I became an immortal, and what they called a Magi-Tek Knight… a warrior trained to wield but spell and steel in equal measure. Strangely after magic disappeared, I kept the immortality granted to me by the process."

Celes paused for a moment before Kyrie nodded for her to continue. Kyrie was getting more and more interested in this story as she had wondered what the world would be like if magic was a ruling force rather than a rare power.

"As a Magi-Tek Knight I was a sworn defender of the realm. But when I realized what madness was going on, and in no small part for being imprisoned, I changed sides and joined a revolutionary faction called 'The Returners'. With them I met an amazing young woman who was… in a word unique. Her name was Terra, and according to Bannon, who was the leader of The Returners, was the only hope of stopping The Empire. I won't get into too many details about that, for now."

Kyrie nodded, only partially understanding. It seemed like a lot of information to try to absorb, even for her sharp and powerful mind. If this woman had any information at all about her, she would be patient for the time being.

"Kyrie, the reason I sought you out is because you have a great power that no one has. People on my plane of existence are dying, and my world will soon be nothing more than a wasteland. You may hold the key to the revitalization of our world. We need your help…"

"But Celes… how can I help you when I barely understand the power I wield?"

"I can teach you but it will take time to fully grasp the reigns of your power. Our world is devoid of magic now… without it, life can not take hold."

Kyrie stood up and shook her head. "I have too many questions to answer about myself." She walked towards the window. "I was captured and experimented on by a man who claimed he was an Arcanologist. He was… talking to himself after the initial research was completed. He mentioned I had more chromosomes than normal or something like that… he said I wasn't human."

Celes frowned slightly.

"Celes… you know more about me than you have revealed so far… you know what I'm going to ask… I have to know… am I human or am I… something else entirely?"

Celes was hesitant to answer that question. She needed Kyrie to trust her and to follow her into the unknown, something she'd never ask someone who was unfamiliar with what was to come, and certainly not something she would have asked someone as young as Kyrie.

"Please tell me!" Kyrie almost sounded as if she was pleading with her. "I have to know the truth!"

Celes sighed, she knew if she didn't tell her, she might lose the girl's trust. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

Kyrie nodded. "I have to know." Her heart was beating faster. A question like the one Celes just asked could only mean one thing…

"You are not human, Kyrie. You are the last of your kind… you are an Esper."

Kyrie turned back towards the window, gently placing a hand on it. "Somehow, I… think I knew I wasn't human from the beginning. But I didn't want to believe it. Then… when I heard what Nash said about me… about my genes being wrong… I guess I started to believe it then."

Kyrie gently fingered her pendant… only then noticing that it appeared to have a crack or flaw. She wondered how long it had been there and it distracted her until Celes said something she didn't expect.

"I knew you mother."

Kyrie's attention immediately left the crystal. The timing was too perfect… Kyrie didn't mention anything about her mom, and Celes mentioned it as soon as she started fiddling with it. If there were any doubts that Celes knew a lot about her, they were instantly dispelled.

"She gave you that crystal around you neck for a reason," she explained. "Inside is a powerful illusion spell that allows you to appear human. She wanted you to have a normal life until the day came that the truth would be known to you. It also suppressed your power so that you could not accidentally cause harm."

"It's cracked," Kyrie said in a low voice.

"What? Let me see."

Celes stood up and walked to where Kyrie was standing. She held the crystal in her hand gently and examined it. Sure enough, a fissure had developed in it. She could sense some of its energy leaking out.

"This must have happened during the incident," she said. "Just how much power did you use against your captor?"

Kyrie looked down as Celes let go of the crystal. She unconsciously touched the left side of her head as she sat on the edge of her bed. Celes looked worried as her mind drifted for a moment before she spoke.

"Nash… used some kind of device… it was implanted in my temple. Every time I tried to use magic, it would shock me and nix my concentration to the point where I couldn't even focus a minor cantrip. Worse yet, every time I resisted him, he'd say something in German and…" she cringed as she remembered it.

Celes came closer and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The pain," Kyrie continued, "… it was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. I couldn't resist him… he… he made me strip naked and get into some… some kind of machine… it…" she cringed "… it…" A single tear started to break from one of her eyes.

Celes held her without another word. Kyrie hadn't told anyone what had happened to her in that building. Talking about it was hard for her to do… it reminded her of the pain and the humiliation of what she was forced into.

"It's ok Kyrie… let it out…"

At those words Kyrie's eyes closed hard, squeezing out another tear and she began to openly cry. She would never talk about things like this to a stranger, but this woman somehow felt… familiar to her.

It took her a minute but she finally composed herself and continued.

"The device extracted things from me and injected something to keep me groggy… when I was let out, Nash said he was surprised I was still alive. I was in and out of consciousness after that but when I came to. Nash had said I wasn't human… and then…" Kyrie breathed out a ragged breath. "God, this is the hard part…"

"Take your time."

Kyrie nodded. "He started getting closer… and then I felt something change in me… like something asserted itself. The machine shocked me but I was somehow able to push past it… I hit him with a concussive wave. He got upset with me and made the device go to its highest level… The pain… God, the pain was unbearable but somehow I made it though it. I hit him again, so he tried to use the device on me. I somehow managed to pull my energy inward and throw it all out at the same time. That destroyed the device….

Kyrie thought for a moment. "I sort of blacked out at that point, but when I came to… I…"

"What happened?"

"Nash… he was… he was dead. He looked like he exploded…"

"You killed him out of anger… but he also presented a very real threat to you, Kyrie."

"Did he?" Kyrie asked. "I've been struggling with that question for a while now. Without his device, he couldn't have had very many tools left at his disposal."

"You have to listen to me Kyrie… Nash was using you. He was no different that Emperor Gestahl… the man how pioneered Magi-Tek in my world. If given half a chance, I have no doubt that Alexander would have capitalized on a moment of weakness to get you back under control."

"You think so?" Kyrie asked skeptically.

"Absolutely," Celes replied. "Esper have been mistrustful of human empires for a long time and apparently with good reason… there are those in power that have no problem repeating senseless and deadly mistakes… how have no problem ignoring the warnings of the past… and have no problem using Esper and anyone else of use to them. I can guarantee you that Nash was no different… not at all."

Kyrie felt a little better after hearing Celes say that.

"It was the reason your mother gave you that pendant in the first place."

"To protect me?"

"Yes... but also so you would fit in with the rest of this world." With that Kyrie stood up and walked towards the window.

"Do you remember what my mother was like," Kyrie asked as her hands touched the glass. The skies were still very dark and light rain continued to patter against the window. "I have no pictures of her or anything… all I have are feelings about her."

"This may come as a surprise to you Kyrie, but your mother was a human scientist."

Kyrie turned towards her. "What? Am I only a half-blooded Esper?"

"No you are a full blooded Esper. Let me explain. Your mother, Miriana Akani, was an expert in Genetic Engineering. She's a descendent of Terra, about 12 generations or so down the line. She knew that the revival of magic was somewhere inside her so she began to experiment on her own DNA. You see, she and I came to this dimension together after the end of our world."

Celes stood up and wandered next to Kyrie. She looked like she was going to cry herself now as she remembered the tragedy that brought her to this very moment in time.

"After magic disappeared from the world, there were a lot of still-births among people and animals. It seems those who believed that magic would only become non-existent if the world was were not too far from the truth. Without magic the world began to slowly die. It took close to six centuries but it did finally come to pass. Your mother was the last child born in our plane. When we arrived in a world that magic had only begun to disappear, she decided she would try to save it by reviving magic." Celes let a tear slip. "She had it in her head that if she could revive magic here, then she would go to our world and revive it there, saving the world. Her obsession drove her to the brink of insanity and after you were born, she left you to my care for a short time to finish her experiments. She died in the lab two years later from a terminal sickness she ignored in favor of her work. I loved your mother so much, it was devastating for me."

Kyrie could guess what happened next… her entire life, she bounced from foster family to foster family."So you left me to the care of the orphanage until it was time to know the truth." Kyrie knew in a way Celes was abandoning her but she figured out the reason.

"Kyrie I'm sorry," Celes cried. "I just couldn't bear to look at you after she died."

"It's okay, I understand."

"You do?" she asked between tears, surprised to hear that considering how hard Kyrie's life must have been here.

"Yes, I do. I probably would have done the same. It's not easy to lose the ones you love. Though I have to ask, how did mom manage to create the pendent? She couldn't have had much if any magic, even coming to this world."

Celes calmed down and responded after a moment, "With my help. During her experimentation she ran certain tests on us to see if she was making progress at all. She did manage to wake up a small amount of magical energy we both had. Borrowing my power and using her own she crafted the pendent."

"Ok that I understand, but tell me how can I be full blooded Esper if my mom was more than likely only 1/24th Esper?"

"That's a little harder to explain without genetic knowledge, but I'll try. According to your mom, she managed to find DNA sequences within her own DNA that couldn't be human; parts of her DNA that split from two stands into four. Using what she knew from that and information she managed to compile from… other sources… she managed to create completely new chromosomes. When pieced together, she used her own ova to provide the base cell after extracting the genes from it. Amazingly, the new chromosomes were accepted by the ova and… well… the rest is history."

"So in a way, she really wasn't my mother… but she is. That's weird."

"I hope this doesn't change your opinion about her."

Kyrie smiled. "I have no memories of her except sometimes in dreams, dreams of the small amount of time she spent with me. I have nothing but good dreams about her Celes, nothing you can say will change my mind about her."

"I am glad of that," Celes replied with a smile of her own. But the smile was short lived. Celes seemed to stare in one direction, her gaze falling upon a nearby wall.

"Celes what is it?" Then suddenly she felt something herself. A dread she had only felt once before, long ago when she was just a child in a orphanage. "What is that?" her voice trailed off.

Suddenly, Celes leapt to her feet reaching behind her for what appeared to be a small rod of silver metal. "Kyrie!" She shouted. "Get away from the wall." Instantly she complied, and as she did so, dark shapes began to pull themselves from the wall. They were monsterous beasts that walked on all four and seemed to have almost birdlike beaks. Some rose from the ground in moving shadows. Within moments there were five of them in the room.

Celes held the rod like a sword hilt as a blue energy blade extended from it to the length of a claymore. "Damn it… Shadow Creepers. Stay behind me Kyrie," she ordered.

"What is that?" she asked as she hid behind her.

"An Esper Artifact that your mother wanted you to have when you were ready. It's the Atma Weapon, a family heirloom passed down by your ancestors and a weapon of great power." She then began speaking an incantation in a language that Kyrie didn't understand but seemed vaguely familiar somehow.

"What are you doing?"

Celes finished her incantation as spectral energies began to swirl around her. They seemed to form illusions of roman numerals made of energy that spiraled around. Celes's form glowed yellow for a moment before she launched herself at her attackers with inhuman speed.

But the attackers were even faster than her. One of the creapers swiped at her and nearly caught her with its claws. Her attempt to dodge the attack brought her within range of another which pounced and pinned her to the ground. She lost her grip on the weapon and it skidded across the ground stopping at Kyrie's feet. Upon doing so, the blade disappeared. Celes was then restrained by the monster but it didn't go for the kill, as if it was waiting for something.

Kyrie picked up the Atma Weapon but no blade appeared for her. As she tried to make it work, a dark figure walked though a nearby wall and stopped less than three feet in front of her.

The shadows faded around the figure forming into a woman who looked like some a reject from a goth club. She had silvery hair and pale skin, and her eyes were light green, glowing with a malevolent energy Kyrie couldn't quite place. Her outfit was made of black leather and it flowed about her legs but was tight on top. If Kyrie had ever read or seen any movies from the Dune series, she'd have though it some form of Jesuit robe.

"Shadalexia!" Celes screamed as she fought against the Shadow Creeper holding her down. "I might have known."

"Well hello again Celes," came the voice of the dark one. To Kyrie it sounded like a ghost, echoing and evil. "I was hoping you would be here when I managed to get my hands on your precious little Esper."

"Get away from her you bitch!"

"Flattery will get you no where." At that point her attention turned back to Kyrie. "Well Kyrie, you've grown up to be quite the young lady haven't you?"

Kyrie stepped back as terror gripped her soul. "What do you want with me?"

"You'll learn soon enough, now come along young one. We have much to do." She turned towards the other monsters holding Celes down. "Kill her," she said coldly.

The monster tried, but Celes managed to get her hands free and was holding the monster's head back. Two of the remaining ones began to circle, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

Kyrie was horrified, first Alexander Nash, now this woman… hasn't she suffered enough? Just how many people were after her because of her heritage? She'd had enough; Shadalexia was not going to kill Celes on her watch, and she was damned if once again she was going to be used. Without a word she grabbed her pendent and ripped it off of her neck.

"What are you doing?" the evil woman hissed.

"I'm not going to let you kill her," Kyrie said with resolve in her voice. "This ends now." As she spoke those last words, she crushed the crystal in her hand. The illusion that had long been Kyrie began to fade revealing her true form, and the limiter that protected both her and everyone around her was destroyed...

… The shit had officially hit the fan…

**

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End of Chapter II

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**

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"

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_

**A/N:** See Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

So... yeah, I decided on yet another rewrite despite the fact that few people even read this story. As I mentioned in chapter 1, this story has been a bit of an obsession of mine, so I decided now that I've had at least one sucessful project, it was time to redo this one. I had about 7 chapters or so done the last time, and this time I plan to finish the entire 25 chapter series... if it makes 25 chapters.

You might notice that these chapters are not as long as my current works such as Adrift, Bloodlust or Tempest Aterna... well I was younger when I started writing these. Even with the updates, the opening chapters didn't get too much longer. But that's ok.

If anyone actually reads this all the way through... please review. This is one of the only 2 stories I have up here that have no reviews. I'd venture a guess that not many people look for Final Fantasy 6 / 7 Crossover fiction... the addition of Yuri content probably turns away more readers than it earns but meh... if you read it, please review it. I'd like to think I'm not sharing this for nothing.

See you next chapter.


	3. First Impressions

**A/N:** Characters from FF7AC will make their appearance in this chapter for the first time.

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**III: First Impressions

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**

The energies swirled around her, empowering her essence with pure mana. Even the Shadow Creepers were stunned by the sheer energy that she was emitting. They backed up, allowing Celes a chance to get up and away. Shadalexia, for her part could only stare at this sudden chance and contemplate her next move.

Kyrie's hair lengthened to her ankles, and grew increasingly thicker to the point where it seemed like a large mass almost as large as her but still straight. Her eyes seemed to grow slightly larger, and the colors became more vibrant. The whites of her eyes seemed to be transformed into flawless ivory, the corneas to brilliant Star Sapphires, glowing brightly. The pupils of her eyes, also expanded slightly, and their darkness was like flawless onyx. A thin layer of white fur seemed to grow over every inch of her body, giving the impression of some catlike animal, certainly not anything menacing looking to Celes… or Shadalexia for that matter. Her hair turned to striking silver, starting at the roots and seemingly burning its way to the tips. Her Aura exploded into a blue energy field burning away the hospital gown in an instant, but due to her fur, nothing of her body was visible. Her fore arms and indeed even her lower legs were more bestial. Celes remembered seeing this long ago from Terra. It seemed appropriate to her that Kyrie's true form would resemble her ancestor's so closely.

As she held the Atma weapon before her, a bright blue energy blade extended almost four feet long. Her right foot slid backwards slowly, with the claw like feet cutting into the ground for traction as she changed her stance to something that more closely resemebled the ready stance of an ancient samurai warrior. Kyrie's last few foster families were of Asian descent and she took a liking to the culture. She even took the last name of her last foster family.

When Kyrie spoke, her voice burned into the minds of all who heard it. Her lips didn't move, but through telepathy the voice spoke volumes. She was pissed off and had quite enough of this.

"I don't care who the hell you are, who you think you are, or what you want with me," she growled, "You threatened my friend, and that I can not abide."

Shadalexia's face turned from sinister to almost disgust. "This is your true form? You have got to be kidding. You look like the tragic result of a gene splicing experiment with a goddamned Tribble! Yes, much too cute." With that she drew a blade from beneath her dark cloak. "Some ultimate being," she grumbled.

"You mock me but you have yet to realize that looks are and always will be deceiving," Kyrie retorted. "I have yet to realize my full capabilities, but if the last four years are any indication, I can hold my own against you." Her eyes seemed to gain greater focus as she began to cast her first real spell. Lightning energy focused around her but it was laced with holy power.

The sheer amount of energy caused Shadalexia to step back. Being what she was, that energy was going to hurt like hell.

"Cast out shadows with a storm of light… Luminare!"

Celes dropped to the floor covering her eyes as the shadows were burned away almost instantly by the expanding dome of light and electricity. The energy passed like a wave, though the holy power didn't harm any physical substances, the lightning blackened walls and sent Shadow Creepers back to where they came from. The wave of energy passed over Shadalexia just as she raised a shield of darkness to protect herself, but her Shadow Creepers had no protection against the energy of the spell.

'Next', her gaze upon Shadalexia seemed to say. But it was obvious she wasn't very fond of continuing the conversation. For such a powerful spell, Kyrie didn't even seem a bit fatigued, and that scared her. She knew that less than 48 hours ago, she suffered though a very traumatic incident, yet, after all that, she seemed to be full of energy, and she had the will to use it.

Shadalexia held her sword defensively before her. The wicked curved blade contained a hook-like portion nine inches from the tip on the underside that curved inwards then down again. The weapon seemed to be covered in a sickly green liquid. Kyrie surmised that it was some kind of poison, and knew instantly she didn't want to be on the receiving end. Although she didn't know what it would do, she knew for a fact she wouldn't like it.

"Be careful Kyrie!" Celes shouted. "You just transformed into your true form. You may not have total control over your powers yet!"

Shadalexia lunged forward into the attack, but the young Esper easily blocked her sword swipes. It was also obvious though, that Kyrie lacked close combat experience. Her speed had to pick up the slack left by her unskillful attacks, but it was evident that it more than made up for them. Kyrie's sword strikes were wild and unguided like a berserker, but her speed and fury made any attempt at a counterstrike virtually impossible.

The battle raged for a grand total of 40 seconds before a well-placed strike from Kyrie caught Shadalexia across the abdomen. She stumbled back, grasping the wound with her left hand.

"Damn it!" she complained. "I'm not going to let myself be beaten by an oversized Q-Tip," she growled. "This is far from over, child. I'll soon return to claim what is mine!" With that she began to fade into misty shadows. Kyrie lunged forward attempting to slash though her, but her sword simply separated the mists that were quickly dissipating.

"Damn!" she mentally shouted. "I almost had her." Kyrie relaxed her posture as Celes began to rise to a standing position.

"Nevermind that now," she replied. "Judging by how bad she wants you, I'm sure she'll make another attempt. Kyrie, your speed and magical strength are quite impressive, but…"

"I know Celes," she sighed. Her sigh was vocalized sounding quite close to the coo of a Tribble. "I… don't really know how to fight. I need to learn quickly, she certainly won't be so easily beaten next time." Her hand relaxed its grip on the Atma Weapon and the sword responded by reverting to its rod form.

Celes walked towards her. "You do look… cute."

Kyrie turned towards her as her aura finally dissipated. "Did I look like this when I was a baby?"

Celes chuckled. "Actually yes, but you were a lot smaller then... kind of like an oversized ball of cotton… with eyes."

Kyrie mentally pictured that and chuckled in reply, once again vocalized. It sounded to Celes like the chuckle of a young girl, light and almost musical. She smiled at this, but inwardly she was sad. Now that more than just humans with delusions of god-hood were stalking her, she was now in mortal danger all the time. She knew once she began to unlock the secrets her mind held from her, her life would change. But never for a moment did she imagine she would become a fugitive… well prey was probably the better word. She shivered at the thought of suddenly being one of the most sought after creatures in the multiverse.

Celes had plans that needed to be put into action. In following those plans, she knew she would have to take Kyrie to a place that would probably depress her more than this world ever could. At least there, she had more allies that can help in protecting her young charge. Inwardly she wondered just how bad it would become. Just as Kyrie realized she was going to be hunted, the realization hit her like a charging chocobo. Her life was going to be get pretty interesting from here on out. In a way she was expecting it. Now that the reality was upon her, she just wasn't sure if she was truly ready for it.

"Kyrie, it's imperative that you learn as many as the old spells as quickly as possible." She sounded stern, almost like a teacher. It was time for her to become the parent she should have had. "I know of a grand library in my old world that has all of the materials you need… but I don't think you will like the setting."

Kyrie knew what that meant. She was going into a world where death was all that was left. Kyrie adored life, and vibrant things, but where she was going, such things were but a quickly fading memory. In her mind, she mentally threw her shoulders back and resolved she would face the nightmare wholeheartedly. "Then lets go," she said with resolve.

Celes knew she would have to soon get used to that mind speech that seemed to be her only form of verbal communication.

An hour later, after finding Kyrie some new threads, they passed though the ether between worlds and faded into existence on a flat plain. Kyrie looked around and realized that she was not totally prepared for what she saw. She doubted that all the reading material in the world on this place would not be enough to prepare her for this…

The plain was a wasteland, and endless, rocky field of nothingness. In the distance, she could see mountains peeking across the center of the horizon, and dark swirling clouds weaving like an angry sea overhead. The miasma of death seemed to be there, just beyond the reach of normal sense. Kyrie's enhanced aural sense picked up on it immediately, and it filled her with overwhelming dread. It was as if someone removed her soul, placed in liquid oxygen and then replaced it without letting it warm.

"My God," she gasped as she took it all in. "This is what happened to your world?" At that a cold wind assailed her, intensifying the chill already creeping up her spine. Celes had prepared her for this trip, but seeing it this way was still quite a shock. Kyrie's feet precluded the idea of wearing any form of shoes, but her feet weren't cold. Even with the Jeans she was wearing and the trench coat Celes found for her, she was still feeling it. It might have had something to do with the tube-top she wore. She wished she had a pull over but her hair was so thick that anything requiring it be pulled over her head that wasn't incredibly stretchy was out of the question. Kyrie idly realized she was going to miss T-Shirts.

Though her trencher was made of leather, she felt the wind biting into her, gnawing at her flesh like a hundred-thousand piranhas of infinitesimal size. She shivered a little, uncontrollably. Still shaky with her power, she failed to increase her aura to keep her warm.

"Our world used to have a name once," she replied, not entirely ignoring the question. "But now, we simply call it 'The World of Ruin'. I have friends here from an entirely different parallel universe. Their world is also getting over a cataclysm of sorts but is still quite capable of supporting life. They'll help us reach the tower."

"Tower?" Kyrie questioned. "But I thought we were going to a library."

"We are. You see, after the catastrophe that devastated this world ended, a group of people came together to worship the man who caused it. They managed to save most of the Empire's records and data before Vector completely sank below the seas, storing it within the tower. It is in fact, a library of everything this world has ever accomplished. I realized just what they had managed to save when Terra and I along with two other comrades stormed the tower to rescue a mutual friend, and find an ancient artifact guarded by the insane leader of the cult. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to study the imperial records since our main focus at the time was stopping the insane plans of Kefka."

"Ah yes, the man who would be god," she replied with an almost dark tone.

Celes nodded. "My friends should be here soon. We'll take their airship to the tower."

"Airship?"

"You'll see."

Kyrie sighed. "Celes, had I not been created… would the same thing that happened here, happen in my world?"

"No, not yet. There are still other talents that cling to the power of magic. But once they have past on, your world's days are numbered, unless the power of magic manifests in others and spreads."

Kyrie thought about that for a second. "Nash said that magic was making a come back. Was he wrong?"

Celes thought about that. "Our experiments indicated the opposite. But it could be possible. If true though, I do not know how."

Kyrie nodded, signaling her understanding. Just then a loud sound, like whirling propellers on a heavy helicopter began to echo across the plain. Kyrie turned towards the sound and saw something she had never laid eyes upon before.

It was some kind of aircraft, long and graceful with huge rotors extending upwards from turbines that were connected towards back of the ship. It was somewhat oddly shaped but aesthetically pleasing. It had multiple levels, almost like a flying fortress. Its colors seemed to be multiple shades of gray, but along the starboard side, a set of large black letters spelling out 'SHERA' could easily be seen.

Celes smiled as it approached, appearing to be getting ready to land. "They're here." And at that, she began to approach the ship. Strangely, Kyrie noted as it slowed its decent, there did not appear to be any form of landing gear at all. Then as it approached the ground it simply stopped, several feet about it. From the side of the lowest deck, a long gangplank extended and touched down. Celes approached it waiting for her friends to disembark, but realized they were not all there.

First down the ramp was a large, cat-like creature with a few feathers for apparent show. It gave the cat almost an Indian-spirit look. Kyrie examined the unique creature as it carefully made its way down. Its fur was a neutral red, and on its left shoulder was a marking that said "RED XIII". The tip of his tail was lion-like and seemed to be composed of fire, but she couldn't be sure. Riding on its back was a cartoonish looking calico cat that was black and white, and vaguely humanoid. It wore a crown and a cloak making it rather cute. The effect the two creatures together made reminded her of old cartoons and she wondered just how strange the world they come from is. Last of the three to disembark was a tall man with stark white hair and pilot's goggles. His clothing seemed to indicate he was in fact the one at the helm of this amazing vessel. In his mouth was a lit cigarette and in his left hand, swung over his left shoulder was a large spear of some sort.

As they reached the ground, Celes immediately questioned them. "Where are the others? Are they on board still?"

"Not all," answered the pilot. "A few of them decided to take a trip out in the middle of fucking nowhere. They saw some ruins in that desert near Miranda and of course that pain-in-the-ass Yuffie wanted to see if there were any artifacts or materia there. Hell even Cloud wanted to check it out, so everyone save Nanaki, Cait Sith, Vincent and myself went into the ruins. Vincent is on the stern as usual, pondering existence or something equally fucked up."

Celes smiled as she turned towards Kyrie. "You'll have to excuse him, his use of slang terminology is quite frequent."

"Yeah," the calico agreed. "You might even say he _curses like a sailor_."

The red cat, that Kyrie surmised was Nanaki due to his odd Indian look, seemed to sigh at that then to her surprise, spoke. "I don't know what I find more difficult to tolerate Cait; the smell of the chocobos, or your puns."

"You… you talked!" Kyrie said in surprise, wondering how an animal like that was capable of intelligent speech.

"Yes," he replied. "And so did you… amazingly without moving your lips at all. I assume you are using some form of telepathy?"

"Umm, yeah… I guess…" Kyrie was still shocked that the creature spoke, but was even more shocked when she finally realized she wasn't actually speaking, as if her voice actually wasn't capable of it. Of course, the other cat-thing speaking was rather odd as well. Being it looked cartoonish however meant it was not nearly as surprising.

Celes chuckled at Kyrie's expression. It brightly showed her feelings of wonder and amazement. "You'll get used to them Kyrie. Oh, where are my manners. The one that resembles a red wolf is Nanaki. He used to be called Red 13 for obvious reasons and some of the crew still calls him 'Red' for short. The cat riding on top of him is Cait Sith… a robot remotely controlled another friend of ours named Reeve. Our dirty-mouthed pilot is Cid Highwind, Gaia's greatest aviator, navigator, engineer, commando…"

"And a partridge in a pear tree," Cait sung without missing a beat. Nanaki and Cid groaned as if in pain at that one, but Kyrie chuckled, momentarily showing her two cat-like canine teeth.

"Hey," Cait responded, "that sounded extremely cute… kinda like someone tickling a Tribble!" Even Cid chuckled at that one. Kyrie noticed a slight Irish accent from the cat which somehow seemed appropriate.

"Well, shall we get going?" Cid asked. "We still gotta find the other nimrods and get to that damned tower. We still don't know if it is really abandoned or not."

Celes nodded. "Yes, let's go."

As the group began to walk up the gangplank Kyrie looked to Celes. "Big group huh?"

Celes nodded. "You meet the others soon enough, I doubt that Cid is going to want to linger here for too long."

"You mentioned Gaia. I've known that word to sometimes be used to describe my home of Earth."

"It's what they call their homeworld," Celes entered the ship with Kyrie and began to walk towards the bridge. "Their world was very nearly destroyed twice. First by a dark force called Jenova, and then by the spirit of Jenova trying to destroy it again using a deadly pathogen called Geostigma. They stopped them both times, and now they are trying to help us get the survivors off this world before its too late."

"Are you still trying to save this world?" Kyrie asked, sounding concerned.

"Yes… but until we can find a way to do so… we have to try to save who we can."

Kyrie understood what she meant. It seemed horrible in many ways that the people would be forced to abandoned their homes like this… but she understood what had to be done.

Kyrie took in the sights of the inside of the ship with awe. She had never seen technology like this before today. Much of the ship seemed like something out of a Steam –Punk enthusiast's imagination. The bridge was huge, and most of the front was dominated by a huge window, allowing a wide sight range. Rear and center was the navigational wheel, and Cid quickly made his way there. The control station was poised on top of platform that overlooked not just the bridge but a holographic navigational station in the center of the bridge.

Cid hit a button raising the gangplank and closing the main hatch. As the ship lifted off, Kyrie noted the changes to the holographic display. They were moving at a pretty good clip.

"Cid," Celes began as Nanaki dropped Cait Sith off at his computer pit. "How long until we rendezvous with the others?"

"At this speed, 'bout 32 minutes," he said with confidence. "I speed it up if you like."

"No need, I have to get Kyrie familiar with the ship," she replied. "Let me know when we're close."

"You got it."

Celes turned to Kyrie. "Come on… let me show you around."

Kyrie followed closely behind and remained silent… there was so much to see, and Kyrie knew she'd have a tough time fully understanding it. Just about an hour ago, she was sitting in a hospital room, trying to figure out where she was going with her life after her incident with Nash… now, she was on an airship in an unfamiliar and dark world and about to embark on a perilous adventure…

It was a lot to take in.

As they passed though one of the halls towards the crew area, she passed a picture of another airship, this one was somewhat sleeker but it looked in many ways like it was built and designed long ago. She noticed the name on it was "Highwind" and she remembered Cid's last name was the same.

"What's this?" she asked Celes.

Celes stopped and saw what she was looking at. "That was Cid's first ship. It was built with the help and resources of a powerful corporation that exists on Gaia called 'The Shinra Electric Power Company'."

"He designed it?"

"Yes," Celes replied. "It was quite an endeavor from what I understand. Cid was quite proud of it. Unfortunately it was destroyed during the cataclysm that struck their world."

"What was it?" Kyrie asked. "What nearly destroyed their world?"

"It would take a while to explain, but basically… it was a meteor strike. It didn't actually hit the planet but it almost did. The near-miss was enough to cause catastrophic damage to the city of Midgar though."

Kyrie nodded.

"Hey," Celes said. "Wanna see something that'll cheer you up?"

"Sure," she said.

Minutes later, Celes took her into the Chocobo stable.

"Huh?" Kyrie said confused. "Whoa! Huge birds!" Her child-like exclamation was expected by Celes and it brought a smile to her face to see Kyrie so excited.

Kyrie walked up to one of them and it immediately lowered its head to say "hi". Well it said, "Wark!" but Kyrie assumed that meant hi. She reached up and scratched it. It responded amiably to the attention.

"This is what they used to use like horses on your world," Celes explained. "They're called Chocobos. They existed on my world too… at least until recently. We haven't seen a living Chocobo here for a while now.

"He's so cute!" Kyrie commented happily.

"Here," Celes handed Kyrie some Geshayl Greens. "Feed him some of this, they love the stuff."

Kyrie did so and instantly made a friend. With the smell of fresh greens in the air, the other Chocobos stared to take notice. Within moments they all started making noise looking for food.

"Wow, how many are there?" Kyrie asked, seeing them all.

"Seven," Celes responded. "That gold one in the back is Storm. She's known as the fastest land animal on Gaia. She's a racing Chocobo."

"Are they all tame?"

"Well most of these birds were bred by Cloud and Yuffie. You haven't met them yet, but you will."

Kyrie smiled as she went about feeding them all now that their warking became more insistent. She had no trouble with them as she passed out the greens to all her new found feathered friends.

For Celes, it was good to see Kyrie happy, even if only for a time. She knew there would be a lot of strife in her future if they continued on this path. Kyrie was here because she wanted answers… maybe because she actually felt a connection to Celes… but Celes didn't really want Kyrie to get involved in all of this. But she also knew that this wasn't a choice she could make for her. Kyrie was destined to be hunted down for as long as she lived… and Esper are immortal. Kyrie would have get use to living a nomadic life it seemed…

Celes was determined to make sure Kyrie had at least some happiness in it.

* * *

**End of Chapter III

* * *

**

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"

* * *

_

**A/N:** I've sure if you've read the earlier version of this chapter, that you recognize the major changes.

There are lots of things I need to decide on with this story, but I've having fun re-writing the parts of it that irked me in the past. Hopefully you are still enjoying it.

As before, the next chapter will focus not on Kyrie but on the remainder of Avalanche and will likely be mostly the same. But there will be some differences. Slowly but surely, the story is going to detract from how it started, mostly to clear up inconsistencies to make sense of what was gibberish before.

See you next chapter.


	4. The Ruins

**A/N:** Didn't have to make too many changes here, just a few consistency corrections. Originally the version of Avalanche was supposed to be Pre-AC (Advent Children) but after I realized the characters from AC would add something to the story, I decided to add them in, making the story Post-AC instead.

* * *

**IV: The Ruins

* * *

**

As Celes gave Kyrie the grand tour of the Shera, the remaining four crew members were on a mission of their own. Well, more of an excursion really. Avalanche had not been in this world for very long but they had already seen some interesting sites. An ancient ruin was uncovered during recent seismic activity near the broken town of Miranda. It was once one of the towns closest to Vector, the Imperial Capital, and had better supplies as a result. However supplies were dwindling now. The team decided to check out this uncovered trove for any treasures that might be helpful to them.

Leading the group forward was the ever-vigilant Cloud Stryfe. Cloud wasn't well known in this would but definitely gained a large degree of fame back in his home realm. Standing at 5' 7" tall, this ex-mercenary has seen more of the horrors of war than any man ought to experience. Not long ago, he was forced to face an old adversary and the pain of that conflict still remained. His unique blade was separated into several parts at present and held in a complex bandolier across his back.

Standing to Cloud's right was long time friend and former leader of Avalance, Barret Wallace. He was a Negro sporting a Mr-T style haircut with a leather jacket to boot. He was a massive man who's well-built 6'4" profile was more than enough to scare the living daylights out of most would be attackers. His pants were also military style but not tapered. He wore a fingerless leather glove and several metal wristbands on his left arm, and a metallic stomach guard also composed of several rings. His boots were rugged and military style, but unlike cloud, he wore his pants over the tops. His only other adornments were a set of dog tags, which were a reminder of a friend lost, and his mechanical arm capable of transforming into a many-barreled gattling-gun. His right arm was severed about 3" below the Elbow and this replacement served as both is primary weapon and a reminder of the past.

Like Cid, Barret had the tendency to use a lot of slang. While some with a more prejudice ideology might say something about it being linked to a lack of intelligence, Cloud would be the first to argue against such thoughts. Barret had a lot of guts, but he was also intelligent and good on the fly thinker. The fact that he cursed a lot was simply how they talked in the old Sector 7 slums of what used to be Midgar. As one of Cloud's most trusted friends, he's clocked more field time with him than any other member of Avalanche and was still in many ways the de facto leader.

Following closely behind was Cloud's love interest and long time friend Tifa Lockheart. At only 5'4" tall, this voluptuous young woman (at least on top) seems harmless at first glance. This belies her inner strength and killer martial arts ability. She was absolutely beautiful with long dark-brown hair and light brown eyes, nearly flawless skin, and cheery personality. Armed with little more than a weighted set of leather gloves, she was more than a match for any close combat fighter that would dare challenge her one-on-one.

Taking up the rear was the youngest and most mischievous member of Cloud's Posse, Yuffie Kisaragi. Although you'd never know it by looking at this rail thin 17 year old, she's actually a skilled ninja, and extremely deadly with thrown weapons. She's used her seemingly unthreatening 5'2" frame to her advantage as it readily makes her opponents underestimate her skill. Armed with a large Windmill Shuriken which she can use both at point blank and at range, she's proven reliable in the past. Her only real weakness is Materia which she treats not only as an important part of a complete arsenal but almost as a vain woman would treat jewelry.

The ruins seemed to be an ancient city, although not a very big one. The center was a ruined temple that, for the most, part was still intact. The outside was adorned with strange sigils and runes, carved deeply into the stone. The drab color of everything, including the desert sands, and the maddening sky made the scene all the more surreal. The architecture seemed out of place with they kind of designs one would find in or near Miranda, but as this was quite obviously a very old ruin, expected.

What wasn't expected was its strange familiarity. At the first sight of the temple, Cloud stood in awe for a moment at this grand design, still evident after what must have been ages of neglect in the desert winds. Almost instantly he seemed entranced by the sight. Although the others didn't seem as taken back by the sight, Cloud was obviously mesmerized. Something… just something seemed too familiar to him.

"Come on Cloud," the impatient ninja shouted. "If you've seen one ruined temple you've seen'em all right?" But still, Cloud seemed unresponsive. It wasn't until Tifa bumped him in the side with her elbow-guard that he snapped out of it. Instantly his eyes met hers.

"Cloud?" she asked tentatively. "What is it?" As his stunning eyes met hers, she felt an eerie feeling. There was always something about his eyes that made everyone stare uncontrollably. 'You'd think I'd be used to his gaze by now,' she thought to herself. His emotions were sometimes rather hard to read, but over time Tifa had managed to learn some of them. This time the emotions were clear; surprise and strangely, confusion.

He turned his unusual gaze back to the temple before speaking. "It… just can't be… here?" Finally, the familiarity of the temple struck him like a battering ram.

"What Cloud?" Barret interjected. "Come on man, what's with you?"

"It's the temple," Tifa replied. "Something about that temple. Cloud talk to us. What is it?"

"I recognize the architecture," he finally replied. "Its… its Ceteran!"

"Ceteran… as in the Cetra?" Yuffie questioned. "But how can that be? We're in an entirely different reality from our own!"

The Cetra, also known as the Ancients, were a race of people who possessed powerful life-based magic. It is said they had existed since the dawn of time, and acted as caretakers of the planet. The late Aeris Gainsborough was thought to be the last.

"Could the Cetra have developed their own form of Dimensional Travel?" Tifa mused. From what little was known and from what Sephiroth once said, the crew knew that the Cetra were not from their world but were capable of space travel at once point in their existence. However this was a completely different reality. Could the Cetra have developed a way to cross into different realities as well?

That idea was not so far fetched. After all, when they met Celes, they didn't at first believe her. But when she showed that mystical power could be used to travel beyond the physical barriers between worlds, Cid made it a personal mission to find a way to transport an entire ship between realities. It took him only two months to develop and install it into his latest airship.

"Who gives a fuck?" Barret interjected. "I got more than my fair share'o that shit back on the home front. So this is an Ancient's Temple… big deal."

"Don't you understand what this means?" she shot back. "It means that there just may be some Cetra alive, if not here, than maybe in another reality. We could bring some of them back with us to our world and help heal the damage caused by Meteor."

Barret looked back a Tifa for a moment. As far back as he cared to remember, he's been in a war with a mega-conglomerate called Shinra to help save the planet. His most ambitious undertaking in that venture came when he formed the revolutionary force known as Avalanche. Shinra was draining the life energy out of the planet and converting into electrical power for the largest and most complex city ever created, Midgar. They called it Mako Energy, praising it as the most advanced form of power production the world had ever known. But all Barret called it was 'The Rape of the Planet'. Energy released from something that died went back to the planet to be cycled anew, but Mako Energy simple burned it up, slowly killing the planet over time. If Cetra indeed existed here or in other dimensions, they may be able to do something about the depleted life of their own world. He saw her point now and realized how important this was.

A man named Sephiroth had used the Black Materia to summon Meteor, a huge asteroid that would crash into the world releasing the life energies inside. He planed to absorb all of the planet's energy and, in essence, become a god. Aeris had used the White Materia to summon Holy, a powerful surge of life energy that would protect the planet from Meteor. But for her efforts, she was rewarded with death by the massive no dashi called the Masamune, which was Sephiroth's trademark. Cloud had managed to kill Sephiroth before he could stop the sacred spell from performing its task, but the damage done by the collision of the two forces left the world in ruins. Midgar in particular was nearly wiped off the face of the planet as if by an act of God.

A year after that, things were not much better. The planet was struck by a plague of sorts. They called it "Geostigma" and it was found to be orchestrated by Jenova, the entity that controlled Sephiroth. She was the calamity that fell from the sky over a millennia ago, and was thought to be responsible for the Ancient's disappearance. Even after her initial defeat she wasn't giving up. The complicated nature of that encounter ended when Cloud managed to defeat Sephiroth in battle in old Midgar. Now only three months later they were caught up in yet another adventure that could decide the fate of a world. But if what Tifa said was true….

"Alright then," Barret relented, seeing Tifa's wisdom. "Let's search the temple for clues. They hada have left somethin' behind, right?"

"Let's go," came the calm and almost commanding voice of Cloud. Together the quartet marched onward to the temple.

As they reached the great archway at the entrance, Cloud stopped again gazing into the darkness. Tifa noticed this instantly.

"What now?" she asked.

"I feel something," he replied, sounding almost disconnected. "Something… familiar." Tifa inwardly wondered what he was feeling. Ever since his encounters with Aeris, and his time in the life-stream, he seemed to have ESP when it came to things of a spiritual nature. Cloud hasn't completely adjusted to it yet, but feels as if he's starting to get the hang of his new ability.

Without another word he entered the temple. Although it seemed extremely dark from the entrance, it was obvious that some source of light existed deep within the temple. As they continued down the hallway, the source of the light became more apparent. Along the walls spaced a few meters apart where strange crystalline globes that glowed with a white inner light.

Within moments, the air became more comfortable compared to the desert heat. Cloud had wondered why the desert was still hot, since they had yet to see the sun since arriving on this world. As his thoughts turned towards the cooler air, they entered a grand chamber. Several platforms, suspended by grand pillars rose high into the air, connected by great marble stairways. The interior of the temple was decorated in glyphs and symbols seemingly older than time itself.

As the group ascended the stairways, Yuffie kept her sharp eyes open for anything that might be valuable. She doubted she'd find the precious Materia she and her father adored, but anything that might be valuable would be taken. Although she was a member of Clouds honorable group, she was still a thief at heart.

When they reached the top of the stairway to the final platform, they were greeted with a large altar seating a six foot long crystal that resembled a coffin. The crystal was somewhat cloudy but the light in the room allowed a dark shape to be visible within it. Cloud recognized the profile, even though it was lying down and suspended in the center of the crystal. When realization hit, he gasped in disbelief. Tifa recognized it too, and although she could not believe her eyes, she accepted what she saw as truth.

Cloud instantly ran to the crystal and peered though the completely transparent top. His first thoughts were confirmed, although his logic told him he must be dreaming.

"I don't believe it… Aeris…"

It was her, the last Cetra that lived on his home plane. She lay like a perfect angel, exactly as he remembered her. She was wearing the same pink, front-buttoned dress and short short-sleeved rust colored leather jacket she wore in life. Her soft leather boots and wide metal bracelets were there too, along with the ancient sigil she wore on the thin silver chain around her neck. Her eyes were closed, but she had the same contented smile on her face he remembered so clearly. Normally she wore the long length of her auburn hair in a beautiful braid, but it was loose as she lay. Although Cloud knew she was 22 years old, the 5'3" angelic vision to him represented the innocence of someone younger displayed in her face, body, personality and spirit. He really didn't realize how much she meant to him until she was murdered. Although he could never love her the way he loved Tifa, he had always had strong, almost brotherly feelings for her. Though older than him, she was like a little sister in a way.

Tifa stood behind Cloud watching his movements and realizing how this must be affecting him. She decided to remain on task for the moment, removing a small device from her belt and stepping closer the crystalline casket to Cloud's left. As Tifa waved the device over it, she watched the readings and gasped.

"Cloud!" Tifa half shouted. "She's alive!"

Cloud nearly jumped to his feet as he instantly grabbed the lid of the coffin, pushing it aside. It took a great deal of effort but in his sudden, adrenaline fueled burst of strength, it did move. As the lid hit the ground it made a loud clinking sound similar to a heavy glass dropped on a hard tile floor that somehow escaped destruction, though cracks could clearly be seen stretching across the lid.

"Aeris," he whispered as he neared her face.

Slowly her eyes began to open; their light green seemed to glow similarly to Cloud's. She sighed upon her first breath of fresh air, unfolding her hands to lie upon the edge of her tomb.

"Cloud?" her small voice seemed to ask. As her vision cleared she saw his eyes, the windows of his soul, and smiled. Slowly she reached up to him, and Cloud met her arms pulling her upper body into his embrace. He hugged her firmly, but not tightly, as if afraid she would break in his arms.

"My God Aeris, you're alive!" As he spoke, his words seemed to confuse her. But from that angle, only Tifa managed to catch the look.

"How," she questioned. Aeris was instrumental in helping Cloud against the insurmountable obstacle presented by the Remnants during Sephiroth's second offensive. But she was long since dead, flowing within the lifestream with Zack to accompany her.

Cloud didn't have the answers she wanted, this much was certain from the look of confusion in his own eyes. Saying nothing, he helped her out of the crystal tomb and helped support her weight, as she seemed too weak to stand on her own.

As Cloud helped Aeris regain her balance, Barret's cell phone began to ring.

"Yo, what up?" he said after hitting a button on it to initiate speaker mode.

"Yeah, it's Cid," came the reply. "I'm almost to the Ruins. There's been a change of plan. We're picking you up and heading towards The Tower of Fanatics. Celes just came back from her little dimensional field trip and brought back a rather strange woman with her. They want to hit the archives."

"Shit! We was gonna do that after we checked out Narshe for supplies!"

"Too bad. We're going by Celes's instructions on this one. Ya'll get your asses on board as soon as I land. This is really important man. No bullshit."

"Fine. Hey, you ain't gonna believe this shit, but Aeris is alive."

"You gotta be fucking with me," Cid said with clear shock in his voice.

"No shit man, I don't believe it either, but you'll see when you get here."

"How'd she get here, and alive no less?"

"How the fuck should I know? Just hurry up, this place is freakin' my ass out so bad, I just might turn to a white man."

Cid laughed at the other end. "Right, see you in three minutes."

"Peace." Barret shut of the line. "Well shit. Looks like we gotta cut this short. Let's get outside."

As they made their way towards the edge of the ruins, Cloud explained to Aeris that she wasn't in the same world she was in before. As she began to question him, he felt a pang of sadness for the girl. She had been though so much already, and yet he felt as if this was only the beginning. If somehow, Aeris had been resurrected, then that could mean that bigger things were on the horizon. But just how did she get here?

* * *

As the five made there way out of the ruins, they paid no head to the dark energies that began to engulf the topmost platform. Soon, four black shapes began to form. By the time the crew was outside the temple the darkness coalesced into four men, men that Cloud would not be happy to see alive.

"Our trip though the Ether was not pleasant," one of them stated as he walked closer to the edge. His leather outfit was one piece similar to Shadalexia's outfit though as he did not have the same curves she did, it was mostly straight in its design. Sitting on holsters on his sides were unusual looking pistols. His silver hair trailed down his back and is light green eyes expressed slight nausea.

"What precisely did you expect Yazoo? Traveling between dimensions is not for the faint of heart." The man who said this had a slightly different black outfit, though not much. The biggest changes where the larger cuffs and the fact that he carried a katana with two parallel blades in a sheath on his side. He was slightly shorter than Yazoo, but held a commanding presence the first did not.

The third and largest shivered a second and turned towards the second, "You said nothing about feeling like a TV Dinner when it was over Kadaj." He didn't have the Jesuit style lower half the outfit the others did, just leather pants. He was far more muscular than the other two, with a stronger set jaw. On his left arm was a device that acted as his primary weapon.

Yazoo turned towards his largest brother, "Aww, don't cry Loz."

"Enough!" the fourth and tallest snapped. His very stature indicated he was the leader. Standing at over six feet tall, with long hair similar to Yazoo's and a face that seemed to be a fusion of the other three, he was probably the most dangerous man alive. The problem was he wasn't supposed to be alive, since Cloud has already killed him… twice.

"If it wasn't for the fact that we were able to force Aeris out of the Lifestream, we wouldn't have even made it here." The others stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt their leader. Sephiroth was not the kind of person to argue with.

However Kadaj looked towards the crystal sarcophagus and sneered. He realized something was wrong… very wrong. "Someone got to the artifact first."

The leader turned around, his long silver hair flowing around in the spiral. He quickly covered the ground between him and the coffin and looked inside, but the cracked crystal cover lying on the ground behind it told him all he need to know.

Yazoo spoke up after a moment. "Now what? We need that artifact."

The leader only nodded before kneeling before the coffin and placing a hand inside. "Odd, it's warm to the touch. The artifact must put of some kind of heat. This also means it has not been missing for long."

Instantly the four leaped down from the platform and ran down the corridor, hopping to find the thieves before they managed to escape.

* * *

**End of Chapter III

* * *

**

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"_


	5. The Tower of Fanatics Part I

**V: The Tower of Fanatics, Part I**

* * *

"Did I hear that right?" Cait Sith asked. He had just finished giving Kyrie the grand tour of The Highwind when he overheard the conversation between Barret and Cid over the intercom. He bounced his way towards the pilot's wheel with some level of excitement. "Is Aeris really alive?"

Cid nodded but didn't take his eyes off of the forward view. "Looks that way. I can't believe it myself." He smiled to himself thinking about some of the rather interesting times Cloud and her had had together. Then he decided to change the subject as he knew the young Esper was on the bridge. "So Kyrie, what do you think of my ship."

"It's incredible," Kyrie replied with still a hint of wonder in her voice. "I didn't realize man could build such things. This ship is like a mobile fortress."

"On that note, did Celes tell you it was armed too?" he asked, curious as to her reaction.

"Armed?" she asked surprised. She blinked for a moment, wondering what else could possibly be shoehorned into the ship.

"Yep," Cid replied. "I'm still working on making sure the systems are in working order, and I haven't had to use them yet, but we got weapons on this baby." He patted the wheel as if it were a favored pet. "I didn't build her completely though. We found the wreckage of this in a place called Bone Village."

"Bone Village?" she questioned. "Seems like a depressing name for the place."

"They dig up old fossils there. I had a thought that this airship was at one point one of the ships the Cetra used to get to Gaia… would explain a fuck-lot about her that's for sure."

Kyrie thought about that for a moment. "Why do you say that?"

"Cause a lot of the tech we've been finding is some really advanced shit. I've been reverse engineering a lot of it to figure out how it works. It was using some of those that I managed to make the Quantum Tunneling Device or 'QTD'."

"And that's what you use to travel between worlds?" she asked.

"Yep… quite a genius piece of machinery, if I do say so myself. I have no idea if that's what the device was used for original but I figured out how it worked and rebuilt the fucker from the ground up."

Kyrie chuckled. "You're a genius Cid."

"Eh… I don't like to toot my own horn… Aw what the fuck am I saying, of course I do!"

Kyrie genuinely laughed at that, and Celes seemed pleased with this. Kyrie was already starting to make friends amongst Avalanche.

As she walked towards the front window, she noticed the sands of the Miranda Desert quickly approaching.

"Looks like we're almost there Cid," she said. She knew he probably already knew how close they were but she wanted to make sure.

Cid noticed a navigations light on his console starting to blink. "I see that. I'll set her down as close to the ruins as I can."

"Careful," Celes cautioned. "There is still a lot of fiend activity in the area." Cid nodded in agreement and made sure the landing area was clear.

At that moment, Cloud and his party arrived at the landing sight just in time to see the Shera on final approach. Aeris leaned heavily against him, not quite rid of the effects of her resurrection. Although Tifa knew that Cloud's heart was with her, she couldn't help but feel a little of that old jealousy that panged her in the past. She watched as Cloud protectively wrapped an arm around the slender figure of the young Cetra, and tried to vanquish the green-eyed monster that was stirring within her.

* * *

Once the Shera set down, Cloud and his crew boarded the great ship. No sooner than when they entered, the outside hatch closed and the Shera was once again airborne.

They left just before the brothers and their leader managed to get out of the temple.

"You have got to be kidding me," Kadaj hissed as he saw the Shera leave. He remembered that airship from three months ago when he fought his elder brother on top of one of the larger buildings in the ruins of Midgar…

Yes… Cloud truly was a brother to the silver haired menaces that stood here in the ruins. During the crisis on Gaia, it was learned that Cloud himself was one of the "Lost Numbers", an unnumbered clone of Sephiroth. The cloning process however didn't make exact copies of the individuals, instead place a genetic imprint upon the individual where some powers and even memories were transferred over in the process. This was likely what made his memories of his past so disjointed, confusing and often inaccurate.

Sephiroth stared on impassively. "Cloud… So you're here too," he whispered. He turned towards his three former remnants, now considered brothers to him. "My brothers, things have just become… problematic."

"So," Yazoo said as he watched the ship quickly disappear into the angry waves of clouds. "What do we do now big brother?"

It took him only a second to decide. "I'll pursue the other artifact here in Ruins. The three of you will return to Gaia and find the third. No mistakes, we're running against the clock now."

"It will be done," Kadaj said at length. "What do we do if we run into Shadalexia?"

Sephiroth stiffened at the name. "That wench should still be on Earth… her obsession over some remnant of this world's past will get her killed soon enough. If you do run into her, bring her to me. She's fed off of us long enough."

Kadaj nodded as he began to gather with his brothers to prepare to shift dimensions, Sephiroth spoke again.

"At least you no longer have to wonder which of us Mother would choose. She needs us all."

Kadaj stopped for a second, remembering the conversation he had with Rufus three months ago about wondering which would she choose to be her loyal son in the material world. It did bother him a little before and in a way it still does. Apparently, Sephiroth noticed it as well. They were merged at one point which would explain how he even knew about his misgivings in the first place.

"We will not fail you," he replied. As the three concentrated and dissolved into shadowy mists before disappearing completely.

Sephiroth then turned to look in the direction the ship left one more time before summoning forth mystical energy. It was a labored effort in a world where magic was a memory but at last he managed it. The energy condensed into a physical object, becoming a Motorcycle, the type Kadaj and his brothers normally employed. Without another word he hopped on and began traveling northeast.

* * *

Minutes later on the bridge of the Shera; Barret and Yuffie arrived. Cid set the auto-pilot and turned to face them.

"Where's Cloud and the others?" he asked.

"Cloud and Tifa went to go put Aeris in a bed," Barret replied. "She ain't recovered yet."

Cid's eyes took a slightly sadder look. "How is the poor girl?"

"Disoriented as fuck," he replied. "Cloud seems pretty tore up inside seein' her again. Shit… what the fuck do WE do now? Do we go on like she ain't never left? How the fuck are we supposed to cope with this shit?"

Celes whispered, "We take it a day at a time." Barret and Cid turned towards her somewhat surprised. "I never knew the girl so I can't say for certain how you should react, but… for good or ill she has returned. We need to take this one step at a time." Cid and Barret nodded in agreement. "Besides… if she's half as powerful of a spell caster as you told me she is… we need her help."

She paused taking stock at who was here. "Well now that most of us are here, I'll do introductions. Kyrie, this is Barret, he's the founder of Avalanche and current second in command. Next to him is Yuffie, our thief and stealth expert."

Kyrie's eyes scanned the newcomers for a moment before she answered. "Hi. I'm Kyrie."

Yuffie bounced forward holding out a hand. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Yuffie, Ninja Extraordinaire". Kyrie nodded but inwardly she giggled at the girl's confidence and energy. She felt an extraordinary amount of energy radiating from her, not really mystical power but a presence that screamed 'extrovert'.

"Yo what's up," Barret followed holding out his left hand.

Kyrie took it noticing the firm grip that was consciously being pulled to avoid crushing the delicate bones in her hand. Instantly, she noticed his right arm and inwardly winced. She couldn't imagine what it was like to lose a limb.

Minutes later, Cloud and Tifa came up to the bridge and Celes did further introductions. Kyrie noticed Cloud's eyes instantly. Deeper in, she realized that there was a certain coldness within that made her shiver. Obviously, this is a man who doesn't know peace. It wasn't just the stare, everything about him seemed to radiate an aura of precise thought, motion and response. It was almost as if he was made for combat and little more.

She turned her gaze towards the young Tifa next. Something about her struck her as odd at first then she realized it… She quickly shot a look towards Celes who seemed to instantly notice it too.

Tifa's hair was a different color as were her eyes, and her hair is a tad shorter than Kyrie's old human form. But the face, body structure… everything looked virtually dead on with her humanoid illusion she discarded a scant day ago. Celes had noticed it, but it was not the illusion she made the connection to. She couldn't help but stare in disbelief, wondering why she didn't notice it before.

Tifa noticed the two sets of eyes on her and became somewhat uncomfortable. Almost as if sensing the change in his love, Cloud stood closer placing an arm around her in an attempt to calm her. "Is there something wrong?" she asked Kyrie.

Kyrie blinked once, then sighed. "No, it's just that you look so much like my old human illusion."

"No Kyrie," Celes intervened. "She looks almost exactly like your mother."

Tifa blinked before letting a slight gasp escape her lungs. "What?" she asked rather surprised. "How can that be?"

"Guys," Cid interrupted. "We're going to have to sort this shit out later… we've arrived."

Kyrie's head instantly snapped towards the front view port. She watched the dark mountains they were traveling over suddenly end into a flat plain. There standing in the middle, like some madman's monument to evil was a single dark tower. Kyrie didn't expect it to be as tall as it was, or nearly as sinister. The very sight of the tower was enough to send shivers up her spine, and freeze her heart with a strange terror she could not describe.

"I'm going to hover over the top and drop some repel cables. I ain't landing in this place so don't even ask."

"Remember," Celes began, "there is a powerful curse on this tower. You won't be able to use any form of physical attacks inside or outside, only magic can harm the monsters within."

Kyrie turned towards Celes wondering how they were supposed to use magic if it had vanished from this world. She then noticed Cloud sifting though some kind of pouch. "Ok, we're going to try to keep it light this time, so the party will be myself, Tifa, Celes and Kyrie. Tifa don't forget to change out your materia." She nodded, going to work on removing the set in her gloves first. Cloud sighed audibly. "I wish Aeris was well enough to come along, her magic would be of great help here." Grudgingly, Tifa agreed.

"Materia?" Kyrie whispered, not knowing what they were talking about.

"Materia," Celes began, "as I understand it is concentrated energy from the Lifestream of their world. The Lifestream is a current of life energy that is the source of all magic and living souls. Sometimes the energy gathers in a material form. Those small spheres they are using are the result. They contain energy that can be used to cast powerful magic."

Kyrie noticed Celes wasn't using any of these Materia. "Does magic even still work here with its source being gone?"

Celes nodded. "This is one of the few places it still works. It is probably a result of the curse. I can cast spells here so I would assume you would be able to as well."

"Ready," Tifa said at last. And with that, they left the bridge.

Five minutes later, they hit the repel lines and touched down on the top floor of the tower. Celes pointed out the structure in the center of the tower and said, "There was a fanatical cult dedicated to Kefka here once. We faced the cult's leader right where we're standing."

Kyrie took careful note of everything around her and shivered once more. The place had a very dark and brooding aura to it. It was enough to make her kneel down a moment as she struggled to get used to it.

"Kyrie," a concerned Celes asked. "You ok?"

"I… I don't know…" she responded. Her mental voice actually sounded shaky. "I've never felt anything like this before in my life. It's… like the tower itself is radiating melancholia." Seconds later, a low buzzing could be heard. The source of the sound was indiscernible due to the echo making it seem like it was everywhere at once.

Celes recognized that sound instantly… Mage Spirits. They were a constant problem when her and her friends made their way up the tower. After all these years they still remained. "Everybody stay close, we have incoming!"

Suddenly, strange creatures, barely humanoid began to phase into reality near the structure Celes pointed out. There were six of them. Two seemed like some kind of costumed cat-women and the remaining four looked like madmen left to fester for ages before being set loose upon the mortal realm. When they appeared, Cloud instinctively reached for one of his swords but released it as he remembered that they could not attack these creatures physically due to the curse.

As if someone had hit a switch inside her mind, Kyrie's eyes changed to a burning green. She stood up and her aura seemed to burst into life, burning like a blue flame. Tifa was standing close to her when it happened, causing her to jump back. She'd never seen anything like that before. The expression on Kyrie's face changed from the infectious sadness of the tower, to the burning rage she had when she fought Shadalexia.

Cloud took note but stayed on task, summoning reflective magical barriers around each teammate. Kyrie sent a powerful burst of electrical force directly at one of the cat-women, but the shimmering of an energy field told her too late that they had similar protection. The reflected spell came right back at her, leaving no chance to dodge. The bolt struck her dead on, throwing her back with enough force to send her skidding towards the edge. She dug her extended fingernails into the hard stone in an effort to slow her rate of travel. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, only amplified 10 fold. She did manage to stop herself in time, but just barely.

Tifa began casting a spell as she was also struck with a bolt of electricity; the cat-women were bouncing their spells off of each other's barriers and reflecting them back upon her. She managed to stand her ground and maintain her concentration as she dispelled one of the women's barriers. The madmen were making matters worse as they began to bombard the group with powerful spells that seemed to pierce the barriers and strike the group directly. After Tifa took another hit, causing her to drop to her knees with a cry of pain caused by yet another energy flare, Cloud had had enough…

"Cast off vanity and embrace reality… Ultima!" he shouted over the wind. A sphere of magical energy burst into life in the center of the enemy group exploding into a shockwave of destructive force. The madmen were unable to withstand the force of such a powerful spell but the cat-women seemed to shrug it off. To Kyrie's surprise, the shockwave passed though her allies harmlessly, doing nothing more than adding to the wind. Inwardly she wondered how such a potent spell was able to discern friend from foe.

She managed to get back on her feet as Tifa destroyed the other cat-woman's barrier. Celes managed to dispatch the first with a powerful fire spell as Kyrie summoned up enough energy for another magic attack. Although somewhat mudane in nature, the bolt of pure mana fired from her hands instantly disintegrated the remaining Mage Spirit upon impact.

"Everyone ok?" Cloud asked, as the remains of the last spirit faded from view.

"We're fine," Celes responded. "But we'd better get into the Archive before another group shows up. They're a lot tougher than I remember."

The party quickly made there way down the first three flights of stairs on the outside of the tower leading to a doorway to the interior. Celes and Tifa were at the head as they came though the door. Kyrie quickly followed, then finally Cloud who used his sword to jam the door closed. Once they were safe, they took a wide look around the huge room they had entered.

The walls for the full three stories were covered with bookshelves and scroll racks. Several locked cabinets dominated the back wall which seemed nearly a football field's length away, and in the center were numerous tables and chairs, all looking as if they had been neglected for quite some time. The room held a stale odor to it, causing Tifa to wrinkle her nose in dissatisfaction.

Celes imeadiately headed straight for the cabinets at a full run, unsheathing a long sword that seemed to glow with inner light. When she finally got to them, she used the tip of her weapon to pry off the locks as Cloud and Tifa wandered around the archive searching for anything they might need. Kyrie slowly made her way after Celes as she stared in awe at her surroundings.

She had been to several libraries back in her world. All of them were huge, with three floors filled with rows and rows of shelves stocked to capacity with various books. But even they paled in comparison with what she currently saw before her now. It was as if the compendium of all human knowledge was brought into reality and catalogued in this one huge room. And above her, as she looked up, she could see images staring back at her, images of huge, bestial, robotic machines ridden by men, and knights marching forward in a seemingly glorious display. Something about that seemed wrong to her but she had no way to know why. It also brought upon her a chill she couldn't describe.

"There," Celes thought aloud as the final lock gave up the struggle. "This should be where they store the old Esperian Tomes." Upon extracting the first of seven thick books, her suspicions were correct. To Kyrie, it looked like something a deranged wizard would keep in his collection.

It was large, nearly 14" x 10" in dimensions, and nearly 6" thick. It was hardbound with what appeared to be some form of leather, and set with a platinum lock. The book was adorned with a set or runes that seemed to spell out a title, but Celes could not decipher the language.

"Kyrie," she said as she began to rummage though her pouch. "What do you make of this?"

Kyrie looked at the runes for a moment before answering. "The First Book of Atma," she replied with confidence.

Celes smiled at that. "So you can read it."

"Can't you?" Kyrie asked. Celes shook her head no. At that Kyrie shot her a puzzled look.

"Kyrie, the book is written in Esperian, only Esper can decipher the language… at least in theory. No one to my knowledge has ever been able to read it, or understand the spoken form of the language."

Cloud walked over towards a nearby table and sat down several large books. "Lucky for us, the fanatics managed to condense the Imperial Records down to just these five books."

"Humph," Tifa vocalized. "Industrious little bastards aren't they? What do you think they were looking for specifically?"

Celes opened the first book and noticed some points on the table of contents were underlined and highlighted. She didn't like the looks of it. "Oh I think I know. The old Imperial plans for their M-Tek units."

Kyrie looked at her with a confused expression. "M-Tek? You do mean Magi-Tek don't you? How was this power created anyway?"

Celes looked down with a look of sadness. "I don't think you will like the answer to that Kyrie."

"There are a lot of things you have told me that I do not like the answer to, but that doesn't change anything. Tell me."

Celes sighed at that. "Fine," she said without lifting her head. "Scientists under the Empire tried to resurrect magic by draining the power out of Espers they found. The drained energy was used to jumpstart the Magi-Tek Reactors and subsystems, but always ended in the death of the Esper."

Kyrie felt faint for a moment. "What…" her voice trailed as she dropped to her knees again. Suddenly she was assailed with a vision. She saw a grand factory of some kind building bestial war machines with massive hoses connected to them and a brief image of a man in a blood red Victorian style riding outfit with a massive plume coming from his head. He was laughing maniacally.

Cloud was instantly at Kyrie's side as she whispered her pain. "My people… my brothers and sisters… were killed by the empire… to power their war machines?" Her gaze shifted towards the ceiling again where she saw those bestial machines ridden by warriors with determined, almost fanatical visages.

Celes nodded impassively. Cloud placed his hands on Kyrie's shoulders as her gaze shifted to the floor. She looked as if she were going to break down and cry.

"It gets worse…" Celes began in a low voice. "The Magi-Tek Knights were humans who had been infused with the power drained from Espers as well as a large quantity of Esper blood. The energies and blood adhered to the genes in the subject giving them the power to control magic. This process was also fatal to the Esper."

A tear fell from Kyrie's right eye, followed swiftly by one from the left. The clear liquid was quickly absorbed by the fur on her face before it reached her jaw. "So you're saying that your talents… you immortality... all that came at the expense of an Esper." Her jaw began to tremble. It was as if she was absorbing the sadness her entire race must have felt back when the events Celes spoke of took place. It was too much for her to bear.

"I had no choice," Celes defended. "When I signed on to the Imperial Army, I had no idea what they were doing. Then they told me I was to report for special conditioning… that I was going to receive my own command… I jumped at the chance. Had I known what was going to happen I never would have joined the Empire in the first place. When I found out what they were going to do, I tried to resign the commission, but he… Kefka… would not have it."

"The man in red," she whispered as tears continued to fall.

Tifa watched as Cloud changed from holding her shoulders to holding her body completely. Kyrie leaned back into him as she continued to cry at this new revelation. She felt sorry for her, unable to fathom what her pain must be like. She could imagine it was the same Aeris felt when she learned her race was wiped out by Jenova.

"How did you know he wore red?" Celes questioned with surprise. "I told you about him but I said nothing of his appearance."

Kyrie quieted her cries for a moment. As she recovered her mental voice whispered her response. "I can see the factory… the technicians running around like ants… Lord Kefka stood near the machines as two soldiers and one woman who bares a faint resemblance to myself approached. Deep in the bowels of the facility I can feel them… I sense their pain… such terrible pain… and fear… they knew the end was near for them…"

"Kyrie, stop!" Celes cut in as she kneeled in front of her to take a hold of a shoulder. "Don't allow yourself to fall into this vision now. It will only bring you pain…"

Kyrie looked up at Celes with eyes that threatened to spring more tears. "What did I see Celes… who was the woman?"

"Terra," she whispered. "Your ancestor. She was controlled by Kefka and used as a tool of The Empire. She was captured when the Empire raided the Esperian Plane and was a tool for most of her life. It was though her The Empire managed to perfect the art of creating the Magi-Tech Knights." Celes looked away as she continued, not able to face Kyrie. "The facility was the Magi-Tech Factory, where they did their research and production. It was where many of your kind died… where I got my powers… It was located within the capital city of Vector. It no longer exists… when the world became ruined the entire city sank beneath the waves."

"A graveyard now," Kyrie whispered balefully. "For so many lives, it is baleful resting place." She actually saw the city submerged in her mind… the dark water surrounding it, parts of the city were crushed by the weight of water.

* * *

Meanwhile on board the Shera, Aeris suddenly woke up as she felt a chill pass though her. Cloud was in trouble, she could feel it. She stood up quickly and looked around the room she was in. There in a corner was an iron staff, carefully preserved. It belonged to her once… long ago. She decided it was time to take it up again. Moving swiftly despite the stiffness from her recent recovery, she grabbed the staff and sifted thought the nearby chest. Discovering some Materia she could use, she quickly set it to both her armlet and her staff as fast as she could.

"You need me Cloud," she whispered. "I'm coming…."

Celes carefully tucked all the needed books and scrolls away as Cloud attempted to comfort Kyrie. Tifa did what she could to help Celes, hoping to keep the young Esper calm. Kyrie had turned to face cloud and leaning her head against his chest. He held her in kind, looking at her with the same concern he held for Aeris. In truth, Cloud was just trying to be a big brother again, realizing that although this young woman had god-like magical powers behind her, she was still just a child. Despite her new companions, she felt alone and vulnerable, and this new information about the fate of most of her kind only served to strengthen the vulnerability she felt in her mind.

Celes finally spoke up. "There, that's the last one. Let's get out of here before something else happens."

"Kyrie," Cloud whispered, "Are you ok to continue."

Kyrie hid her face in Cloud's chest. "This place is evil," she whispered mentally. "I have to get out of here… I… I can feel the sadness and darkness of this place infecting me. I feel… helpless…" She shuddered. "So… helpless…"

Tifa spoke up at this point. "We have to get her out of here. I don't think she can handle this place much longer."

Celes was forced to agree. Truth be told, she didn't want to stay here any longer herself.

* * *

Aeris carefully made her way down the repel cable as Cid shouted at her from above.

"Hey Aeri, are you nuts! Get back up here! You ain't recovered yet and you have no idea what's down there!"

Aeris looked up with eyes slightly narrowed from resisting the pain caused by her stiffness. "I don't care! I know Cloud's in trouble and I have to go help him. I'd feel better if you came with me."

Cid looked down at her. Ever since he first met her, she was always dragging the rest of the party into trouble. This was surely no exception. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath as he attached one of the repel cables to his belt and jumped off the ship.

Aeris watched as Cid began to freefall head first facing the ground with arms back and legs straight. Before reaching the roof he suddenly stopped and bounced slightly throwing his legs down and landing on the roof in a crouched position. Aeris slid down the cable landing next to him.

"Thank you," she whispered, her eyes gazing on him cheerfully.

Cid harrumphed at that as he stood up again. "I just don't need you getting hurt. Cloud would crucify me if I let something happen to you."

Suddenly the buzzing noise returned, heralding the arrival of Mage Spirits. This time however, only one figure appeared before them. Standing almost nine feet tall covered in black robes seemingly made of leather with additional strips adorned with glyphs of power, stood a mage. His face was almost feral, his eyes red orbs oddly catlike. His hair was black and long with a set of seven long braids starting at the front and drawn back. Two of the braids seemed to frame his face as they dropped to below his chest in front of him.

"Shit," was all Cid could say.

"Begone evil spirit!" Aeris shouted over the wind.

"Begone yourself," it replied in a calm educated sounding voice. "This is my home in death just as it was in life. I am the architect and owner of this tower. Call me Tyranus. I am the librarian of Lord Kefka, and you are trespassing on the master's territory. The penalty is death."

"What have you gotten us into this time Aeri?" asked Cid rhetorically.

Aeris sighed. "I don't care who you are, your presence in this world is an affront to it."

The figure began to laugh; the echo reverberated off of the mountains surrounding the tower. "You're presence here is just as improper. This is not you world Cetra… this world belongs to the master. He may no longer live, but our loyalty to him knows no such barrier." He glared at the two before him. "It is time to face your punishment, infidels!"

* * *

Inside the library, buzzing sounds began to ring around the current occupants.

Celes groaned. "Not again… shit."

Kyrie stood up with Cloud's help. "Come on girl, get a hold of yourself," Celes whispered. "Your friends need you."

Cloud definitely agreed as he saw just what was phasing into reality. It seemed to be a lightly armored figure, with something of a skirt, parted in the front and all black. The eyes of this lunatic were glowing a faint dark green and seemed utterly featureless. Around him, four eight pointed crystals appeared and slowly began to orbit him.

He spoke in an almost demonic growl. _**"I think its time we settled the score… Celes!**_"

Kyrie looked upon this thing and realized she was way out of her league here. Celes's next words seemed to confirm this.

"Just the person I didn't want to see," she said with exasperation in her tone. "The Mage Master."

_**"Looks like your friends have changed over the ages. I doubt you'll be able to defeat me this time child. Prepare yourselves, for once I have killed you all, your spirits too shall inhabit this place for all time."**_

Kyrie stood up, her eyes locked on this specter before her. "I did not come all this way to be stopped by something as pathetic as you," she growled. Her voice didn't seem quite like her own.

Celes looks at her with confusion. She knew this guy was nothing to play with, but the level of confidence she felt from Kyrie seemed to indicate she was not afraid of him at all, as if she knew she could defeat him easily.

Kyrie's aura reappeared in force, the energy throwing a glow about her. "You will not stop us."

_**"Well,"**_ the Mage Master said at this display. _**"It would appear this Esper still has some teeth left."**_ A red aura burst into life around him. _**"Perhaps this will be fun after all…"

* * *

**_

**End of Chapter V

* * *

**

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"_


	6. The Tower of Fanatics Part II

**A/N:** This chapter used to be called "Dark Quest", I've changed it to be part of a two part saga surrounding the tower.

* * *

**VI: The Tower of Fanatics, Part II**

**

* * *

**

Another old ruined temple spread before Sephiroth. Traveling West across a channel, he eventually came to where he now stands, near another Cetra ruin. This one lay within a forest populated seemingly exclusively by dinosaur-like creatures. He chose to avoid these creatures as they would be a waste of his time to kill. This temple was his goal and nothing short of a full global apocalypse was going to keep him from it.

Stepping inside he took in the architecture and inwardly smiled. He felt comfortable in places like this; the soft light of the globes the gentle curves of the stone, and the flowerbeds seemingly just as vibrant as they were ages ago at their height.

But something else was making him smile. He had managed to cheat death once again. This time, he managed to escape by forcing that medaling woman out of the Lifestream. The power expended could have sent her anywhere in the multiverse. He was confident that the chances where slim that he would have to deal with her again, but if he did she would have to be dealt with.

Sephiroth almost lost himself in his own thoughts when suddenly he felt the danger approach. He dodged nimbly out of the way of a huge, wretched looking scythe and drew his weapon forth from the ǽther at the same time. As he did so, he tried to get a better view of what he was facing.

"Harvesters," he whispered upon landing.

They were ugly… real ugly. Standing over nine tall with a sickly pallor and taunt flesh pulled against their bones like anorexia patients. Their hair was long, black and so oily it seemed to ooze evil. Their dress was little more than black strips of cloth covering the vital places, adding to the image of evil in its own right. Sephiroth was familiar with these pathetic creatures; undead Cetra who can only perpetuate their existence by devouring the life energy of those they slay with their Soul Siphon Harvesters. The weapons themselves were almost artifacts but were horribly cursed.

If somewhere within him, there was any compassion for what he would call his lost brethren, he certainly didn't show it as he launched his own counter-offensive. Within moments, the Harvesters were dead, disintegrating into dust in his wake as he began to run now, towards the back of the temple. He would tolerate no further delays.

As his pace quickened he could feel as if the temple was watching him. It is a known fact that the spirits of the Cetra occupy these temples long after their death. Those spirits were lost souls that had not been able to return to the life-stream, instead remaining behind to become watchers and guardians of the temple. Inwardly he wondered if the Harvesters were as unwelcome here as he was. He knew for a fact he was no saint when it came to the planet. After what he did, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the temple itself would soon retaliate against his presence.

But he had to push forward; he knew what he sought had to be here, one of five pieces of a greater puzzle, one that would give him unlimited power. If he ever wished to have his dream fulfilled, this was his best shot.

At a full tilt run, he flipped over another set of Harvesters and lashed out with his mighty blade, dusting them instantly. He hit the ground running, not slowed in the slightest by his acrobatic exertion. Soon he reached the central fane of the temple. At first glance it was similar to the first one and a crystal coffin also resided here. This one he saw still contained its prize; the dark shape of an oddly geometric object could be seen. He leaped up the stairs and suddenly felt another presence. This was a split second before a massive black wing nearly batted him out of the sky.

Deflecting the attack with his sword he was never-the-less thrown backwards onto another floating platform. He watched the massive demonic entity unfurl its second wing and its eyes glowed red.

"Who dares intrude upon my domain?" its voice boomed.

"I do," he yelled back. "Now stand aside and let me take what is rightfully mine!"

"Pathetic mortal," it hissed. "You shall not take my property. I shall kill you for your transgressions."

"I don't have time for this," he hissed as his left arm began to glow from a Materia fused within it. He threw his arm towards an empty area emitting a burst of energy that created a ring of runes. The energy spiraled around a central point eventually forming a massive shape of its own as it moved towards the massive demon.

The demon readied itself for combat as a massive draconic creature, all too familiar to those who were in the central plaza of the city of Edge three months ago, came into being. It launched itself forward as Bahamut-Sin fully emerged and readied itself for combat.

While the monster was distracted, Sephiroth leapt back to the top of the platform, landing on the coffin, before spinning back around and leaping towards the back of the monster. Unlike Kadaj, he was not content to simply let summoned minions do his work for him, he preferred to take part in the melee, brandishing his blade as he landed on the creature's shoulder.

This distracted the demon for a moment causing it to reflexively swat at the shoulder. Sephiroth simply leaped up and came back down upon the hand blade tip first burying it almost to the hilt though its hand and into its shoulder. This effectively pinned it as Bahamut grabbed the creature by its other shoulder and exhaled a massive pulse of plasma into its chest. The explosion caused the creature to screech painfully and it ripped its hand off of the sword to back hand the dragon.

Sephiroth quickly retrieved his blade and slashed though the creatures wing, damaging it greatly. It threw its wing back as Sephiroth became airborne again landing on Bahamut's left shoulder. He watched as his minion charged up another pulse of plasma while effectively backhanding the demon with a huge wing of its own and sending it into a support column. Although damaged, the column held the weight of the impact. As the demon tried to recover from this devastating two-pronged attack, it was hit again with a massive burst of plasma.

Finally defeated the creature fell to its hands and knees and Sephiroth landed in front of it on a small platform. He causally noticed the waves of water kicked up by its hard landing.

"It's over Diablos," he sneered, "Now that you have been defeated your power will be mine."

Bahamut roared its agreement as it waited for any sign that Diablos would still be able to fight after taking such a thrashing. Both watched as it began to shrink down to eight feet tall and pulled itself onto the platform.

"Very well," it said at length. "I am yours." With that, he collapsed forward and glowed with black energy. Sephiroth watched as Diablos shrunk down into a crystal slightly larger than a piece of Materia.

As Sephiroth picked up the crystal, Bahamut disappeared in a burst of blue plasma as he was no longer needed. "This doesn't look like Materia," he whispered. Sephiroth then turned his attention back towards the crystal coffin at the top of the temple, ignoring this odd discovery for the moment. Wasting no more time, he leaped up to it and slashed it open with his sword. Reaching inside the now destroyed container, he picked up what he was looking for.

It was about the size of a fist and glowed with a green inner glow. On one side it was curved like part of the outside of a sphere, while the inside edge was jagged and blocky as if taken from a larger piece. Engraved upon the curved side was an ancient sigil depicting the element of Earth.

"How strange that such a thing could end up away from the world it was created for," he whispered as he felt the energy of this object course though his veins. While he questioned why such an item would be here, he understood that the Cetra did not always work in logical circles. This planet, he knew, was important to them for one reason or another. Perhaps a connection of some kind existed between the Cetra and the inhabitants of this world. But beyond the existence of the temples and the existence of strange guardians he learned were called 'Esper' he knew next to nothing.

This wasn't the first time he came to this world however, and he learned of the existence of a forbidden tower that may hold some answers. He also heard the rumors about the tower; about how physical attacks were worthless against it spectral guardians, how a great evil occupied the place, and how a cult dedicated to an insane man who would be god had taken residence there. Perhaps this cult had built it.

It occurred to him that more information was going to be necessary, and he knew his remnants would have their hands full collecting other pieces of the artifact. This gave him some time. He decided at length he would leave the temple and find this dark tower…

* * *

**Gaia, near Edge**

"Its good to be back," Kadaj stated. His brothers nodded in agreement.

Standing on a cliff face overlooking the wastelands, Kadaj took in the view with a smile. While it had only been a few months since his brothers battled Cloud in this very same valley, the memories were still fresh in his mind. The entire fiasco with Jenova's Head seemed like it happened only yesterday, and he looked forward to matching wits with Avalanche once again.

"I could not agree more," said Yazoo. "I wonder if any of our wayward brother's friends are still here."

"Yeah," chimed in Loz. "I wanna play with that busty one again. She was fun to play with."

"Ah yes," Kadaj chirped. "Tifa Lockheart… brother's love interest… I heard she was a feisty one."

"Heh… yeah… she was…"

"My my," Yazoo cut in, "do I suspect a bit of a crush dear brother?"

Loz's face turned the barest shade towards red. "Well, maybe a little."

Kadaj chuckled a little. Inwardly he thought it better than one of his crying fits. But honestly, how can someone as big and tough as him be so sensitive sometimes. He grew up with the massive mountain of man and still has yet to fully understand him. 'We're supposed to be pieces of Sephiroth', he thought to himself. 'I have never seen a sensitive side to the man.'

Although admittedly, Kadaj hadn't been around Sephiroth nearly long enough to know that for certain. It has only been 12 days since Sephiroth managed to condense enough energy from The Lifestream to sever Kadaj from his soul and forge a body for him. He had to admit, this made things easier for both himself and for mother. Two soldiers are better than one after all, and with his brothers with him, that makes four altogether. Although Sephiroth always seemed to want to work alone, as if being near his remnants was unhealthy for him. Perhaps, Kadaj mused, it is.

"Chances are though; brother has all his friends with him. And we'll see them soon enough." Kadaj's words didn't seem to dampen Loz's spirit at all.

"So," Yazoo began, breaking Kadaj out of his thoughts. "What is our first target?"

Kadaj smiled at his brother. "We're going right down the lion's throat. According to Lord Sephiroth, The Fragment of Wind is located in Neo Shinra Tower on the north side of Edge. With our lost brother busy gallivanting across the World of Ruin, there is not likely to be anyone here who can stop us. No need for subtlety."

"Cool," Loz commented, as he began to condense energy next to him calling is bike to him. The other brothers began to do the same.

"What do we know about the tower?" Yazoo asked.

"Next to nothing," Kadaj replied as his bike came into full existence. "And that is why this is going to be oh so much fun!"

"Yeah," Loz replied as he mounted his bike. "Maybe that bald guy with the glasses will be there too. I'd love to smack him around some more."

At that, the brothers revved their engines and took off down the hill. Their motorcycles screamed though the valley as they made a b-line towards Edge.

* * *

**Esper Homeworld, Tower of Fanatics**

An explosion illuminated the sky as a massive plume of fire rose from the top of The Tower of Fanatics. Sounds of the battle raging above echoed across the canyon walls.

Cid rolled out of the way of the massive explosion and from a crouching position fired back with a powerful bolt of frost. Although magic was not Cid's forte, the Materia he had with him allowed him to boost his own ability with the mystical energy making it easier for him to keep up with his partner and the target.

Tyranus watched the flames dissipate and the smoke clear only to see the Cetra on one knee with her arms crossed in front of her… her left hand gripping the staff and a look of utter defiance on her face.

"I have to admit, a Cetra was the last thing I expected to see on my tower," he sneered. "I was under the distinct impression that your kind was extinct." As if to accentuate the last word a blast of pure mana flew from his hand directly at the young woman. Her form became fuzzy for a moment and she blinked out, though Tyranus could still sense her. He turned to the location she reappeared, which was near Cid, and prepared for the coming counter attack.

"I am the last," she responded as a mystical barrier rose around her.

'Strange', Tyranus thought, 'No gestures, no words… it's like she just willed the barrier into existence.' His pondering was cut off when he realized his Shell effect was removed making him more vulnerable to their magic attacks. Aeris had dispelled it without even moving a finger. He responded by firing off another massive fire plume in her direction.

As if in direct response, the barrier turned to ice around her and Cid. A massive explosion told of a direct hit on the barrier but all it managed to do was melt a layer of ice surrounding its target. Quickly, Tyranus summoned a reflective barrier around him to prevent spells from hitting him directly and watched as the shattered and half melted remainder of the shield around Aeris changed. It shattered and reformed into nine long spears of ice that floated around her. With little more than a head nod, the spears suddenly flew at him at high speed.

'Fool,' he thought, 'they'll bounce right back at you.' The spears hit the edge of the reflective barrier but simply stopped there like they got stuck in it. He was about to question how when he noticed the spears change shape again into something less like icicles and more like needles, then they started pushing through the barrier.

"What?" he managed to exclaim as his barrier shattered and the needles of ice continued their path. Tyranus barely manged to dodge them all, one slicing though the first two layers of ectoplasmic skin on his left arm.

Tyranus rolled back to his feet and threw out a dual blast of lightning towards her. Aeris dropped her staff and held both her hands out before her, seeming to catch the electrical streams. She grunted at the effort as the energy quickly pushed her back to within three feet of the edge of the tower before she stopped herself. Cid quickly moved to the right and fired off a piercing flare spell directly at Tyranus.

With his hands full, and only a simple reflect barrier left to protect him, he suffered the full brunt of the piercing energy attack but managed to not lose concentration. In his anger he managed to push past Aeris's defenses and hit her directly with both bolts of electrical energy.

Cid yelled for her as she screamed her discomfort and fell to her knees….

* * *

**Nearby**

Sephiroth calmly surveyed the terrain as she continued to travel across the wastelands heading towards the massive mountain range that contained the tower. He didn't know how long it would take to reach it at his speed. Lost in his thoughts he suddenly jolted.

A massive surge of electrical energy pulsed though his veins. Loosing his concentration he wiped out rolling a good 75 feet before stopping on his back and twitching as if he was holding a live wire. He fought off the jolts and managed to roll to his knees growling in displeasure. He scanned the terrain for what could have thrown the lightning spell but was met with a wide opened, empty landscape.

"What… the fuck… was that…" Suddenly he felt his energy building and his single black angelic wing opened behind him.

* * *

As the smoke cleared around Aeris, she was on both knees and doubled over twitching as the last vestiges of electrical fury danced across her skin.

Laughing, Tyranus approached her. "I knew you couldn't stand against me. I have to admit though… for a simple Cetra, you gave me a helluva run."

Cid looked on with a worried expression. None of his magic had any real lasting effect on The Architect. He couldn't stop what was about to happen, couldn't protect her. He watched in impotent terror as Tyranus raised a hand coated in flames and fired a powerful burst of plasma directly at the kneeling form of Aeris.

At the last moment, Aeris raised one hand in its path and the burst exploded around her, passing her and spilling into the air behind her, falling down the tower.

"Impossible," Tyranus whispered as her head raised to look him in the eye.

It was at that moment, Cid knew fear. Aeris's eyes were Mako Green and burned with an inner light he remembered seeing only once before. As if to answer, and intensify his fear, she stood up throwing her left hand outwards to the left as a single black angelic wing tore into existence behind her on her left side.

"I've had enough of you Architect," she hissed in a voice very unlike her own. It was her voice but the inflections and tones were far more sinister, reminiscent of a certain SOLDIER that very nearly destroyed her home. "Now you will feel pain. Cid, get down."

Cid obeyed as she for the first time this combat began to actually cast.

"_Ko'gori Khogorin Seth Torkar Ja'nai_… Fires of Hell, come forth from the depths of the blackest abyss and incinerate all! _Merton_!"

At the last word the air around the tower began to become agitated, and Tyranus freaked out. He didn't know this spell, and had no idea what to expect.

Suddenly a hole in space/time opened behind Aeris focusing a vast amount of fire energy it exploded like a second sun behind her sending out a wave of intense heat that passed though her, became magnified, and struck Tyranus directly. The effect left him with no time to scream as his body was instantly incinerated by the blast.

Unfortunately there seemed to be little in the way of protection for Aeris. Though she appeared to suffer little physical damage her clothing burned away in a blinding instant leaving her virtually threadbare. Cid stayed down until the shock wave passed, he felt the heat but was low enough that he didn't get burned by it. As he felt the last of the energy disapate he raised his head in time to see a very much unclothed Aeris trembling nearby. As he began to stand her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she collapsed, her single black wing dissipating in a burst of black mist and feathers as she fell.

"AERIS!" he yelled as he scrambled over to her. He checked her pulse and realized she was just unconscious. "What the fuck was that shit," he whispered as he looked over her form. She seemed untouched other than the obvious lack of clothing. She lay curled up slightly and mostly face down. His eyes drifted to the small of her back where an unusual looking tattoo stood out. He figured it was a symbol of some kind but couldn't figure it out.

With a soft moan, Aeris began to move.

"Aeris," he whispered as he took her in his arms and cradled her as if she was an injured daughter. Her arms crossed over her chest and her legs clenched together as an obvious look of pain washed over her face.

"Did… did we… win?" she whispered.

"Yeah Aeri," he whispered back. "We won."

"I… have to… find… Cl… Cloud…" She began to shiver as she finally began to feel the cold, steely wind tear across her body.

"No way," Cid said sternly. "I'm getting you back on the fucking ship now. You're hurt and you're not exactly in uniform."

Aeris looked like she was going to try to object but then was assaulted by the soreness of her body. Letting a pained tear slip from her clenched eyes she was forced to agree with Cid.

He honestly didn't know what to make of all this… Aeris for a brief minute sounded like Sephiroth, and she even had her own wing. Though he did note hers was on the wrong side. Gently he gathered her up and headed back towards the repel lines.

Not surprisingly, he saw Vincent drop to the roof near the cables.

"What happened?" he demanded, seeing Aeris in a rather embarrassing state of undress and noticing the entire roof looked and smelled like an overused chimney.

"Long story," he answered, handing her over. "Get her to her room, and have Cait Sith look at that symbol on her lower back. I want to know what the fuck it is."

* * *

Sephiroth grunted as he felt a wave of heat pass though him. No, he realized, it was and echo of pain not an actual wave of heat. Confused he glared towards the mountains as he stood up, seeing a bright flash of light coming from behind them. The reddish glow told him it was some kind of fire energy. He stretched out his senses towards the tower and suddenly realized what he was feeling.

"That's… my energy!" Without another moment's hesitation he ran back to his bike. His wing fading away on its own as he stood it back up, got it on its wheels and took off at maximum speed towards the mountains. "That's not all I sensed… I sense one of the artifacts… Cloud is there."

* * *

**Tower of Fanatics, Library**

Inside the library, things were going just as well. Kyrie launched herself off a table on the second floor as an explosion ripped apart the shelving next to her, sending a rain of ruined books and burning papers everywhere.

"Damn it," Celes yelled from the first floor. "His spells are too powerful; my Runic Power is useless here!"

Cloud landed on a nearby shelf firing off a powerful Thunder Spell towards the target, only to have one of the four crystals surround the Mage Master absorb the energy. Cloud cursed to himself and then watched in shock as the crystal suddenly shattered into 4 long shafts of crystal that began rotating like the edges of a Linear Cannon and fire back the energy with far more power.

Cloud quickly dodged the shot that blew a hole in the wall into the adjoining room. Tifa ran under the flying target and tried to strike with a fire spell only to have it reflected back and blow her across the room though three tables and into a wall. "Tifa!" Cloud shouted as Celes tried to dispel the protections around the enemy. The crystals responded by firing a series of energy burst of pure mana like a set of rapid-fire machine guns at her, forcing her to break off and find cover.

The Mage Master threw his arm out to his side and battered away a blast of energy that Kyrie launched from the third floor, only to have to cross his arms and block another blast. _**"Persistant, aren't you young Esper,"**_ he growled menacingly.

"I've yet to get started," she shot back. As she launched three more massive mana bolts at him. 'But his defenses are incredible,' she thought. 'The crystals have to be the key… but how do I deal with them?' Then inspiration struck her, as did a burst of electrical power that threw her to the far side of the library.

"_**Well, we wouldn't want your friends getting in the way would we,"**_ he replied as he unleashed a massive barrage of ice at Celes. Though Kyrie couldn't see the hit, the scream of pain followed by Cloud yelling her name was enough of an indication of what just happened.

Kyire had had enough. She tore herself out of the wall, ignoring the gaping wound on her left arm and clapped her hands together in front of her sending out a sub-sonic shockwave to slam into her target. Though the attack was useless against the Mage Master himself, one of his four crystals developed a crack that he didn't notice.

Kyire shot into the air, actually flying above the third floor and fired a burst of lighting at the Mage Master. He responded by causing one of his crystals to get in front of the energy to absorb it. He realized too late that the crystal had developed a nasty fissure in it and managed only part of a curse word before the lightning bolt overloaded the crystal and cased it to explode with the force of a small bomb.

Quickly recovering from the blast, he watched as his other crystals suddenly began to crack apart as well. _**"Impossible!"**_ he yelled as Kyrie flew behind him and fired a massive fireball into his back sending him sprawling across the floor and detonating a second crystal.

"Yeah, I get that lot," she said sarcastically and sent another massive blast of energy at him. The Mage Master managed to get up just in time for another of his crystals to shatter. Cloud and Tifa immediately began bombarding his position with powerful bursts of holy energy as Celes, now standing and bloody, fired off a powerful Flare spell.

Kyrie, now bolstered by the fact that Celes was still alive threw her hands forward. "Just DIE ALREADY!" and unleashed a blast of energy that caused even the Mage Master to stare in shock.

Kyrie's powers had only grown since she came to this tower. The melancholia she was feeling was the dark energy of the tower invading her being. But unlike a weak mage who would succumb to the influences of the dark power, her soul sucked it up and made it her own. Though still uncontrolled, her power had grown beyond even what the Mage Master was capable of producing. The results were expected; the explosion deafening…

… and the Mage Master was literally blown completely out of the tower. His energy sapped by the dark bolt of power as he fell, preventing him from stopping his fall. Kyrie flew to the hole and looked down as the darkness of the canyon swallowed him.

"Is he dead?" Cloud asked as he approached Kyrie from behind.

Although Kyrie could not feel his energy anymore, she had her doubts. "I wish I knew for sure. I hope so…" Her face scrunched in disapproval. "What the hell kind of a stupid, arrogant name is 'Mage Master' anyway? God… what a dork!"

Celes chuckled as she partially collapsed on the remains of a broken table. Tifa managed to support her as she fell. Kyrie immediately landed near her.

"Don't worry… Kyrie," Celes whispered. "I… I'll be okay. I just… just need to rest… we… we should get back before more trouble…" she couldn't continue. Her outfit was in ruins and her physical condition mirrored it.

"Let's get out of here," Cloud said as he gently scooped her up.

* * *

**The Shera, Later**

Cait Sith sat in his chair in his computer lab. He marveled at how odd this really was. The rune Vincent asked him to translate linked back to ancient times on Gaia. Thanks to having access to all of Shinra's research notes, it took a very short time indeed to translate it and discover its origin. It was very old Cetra, and it meant 'Soul'.

But why did Vincent have such a thing? Vincent wouldn't share his information with him and that worried him. Avalanche had always been open with him. He had to figure out what this really meant which without more information was virtually impossible.

"What do you think Nanaki?" he called out. A low grumble from his red friend told him nothing. "That's what I thought you'd say," he Cait said comically.

"What? I'm sorry I wasn't listening," Nanaki replied. "There is a lot on my mind right now."

Cait Sith turned towards the cat and said, "I'll bet." Cait pressed another key on his keyboard. "I found out what the glyph was that Vincent gave me. Its really old Cetra… which I guess would be called 'Ancient, Ancient'." He let a slight chuckle slip as Nanaki narrowed his eyes down a bit at the bad pun. "It means 'Soul'." He sighed. "Why isn't Vincent telling me everything?"

Nanaki sighed as he sat down. "That's impossible to explain without actually telling you what is happening. No offense at all to you Cait but, I can only say this." He paused making sure he had the computer tech's complete attention. "It has to do with something that could shake the very foundations of this ship if it gets out too far."

"What, are you all afraid I might go running my mouth?" Cait asked. "You know I don't. But it might help me if I knew what was going on. I might be able to find something in the archives that will help us."

Nanaki sighed then looked out the door. Seeing no one out there he walked he spoke. "What I'm about to tell you does not leave this room."

"Ok," Cait responded.

"I must have your word on this Cait," Nanaki replied with more force. "Breathe not a word of this to anyone or so help me, I might be tempted to cause you harm."

Cait swallowed hard. "That serious?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, you have my word as a member of Avalanche. May my soul be cast from the Lifestream if I break this promise."

That seemed to satisfy the former experiment of Hojo. "Very well… it happened after Cloud, Tifa, Celes and that new girl went into the tower. Aeris sensed trouble and tried to leave the ship.…"

Nanaki told him everything… about how Cid followed, about how they were attacked by Tyranus, the Architect, and about the odd transformation of Aeris. Cait Sith looked shocked when he was told about the black wing and the Mako Eyes. He told him about the spell that decimated everything and the mark on the young Cetra's back.

Cait Sith considered this information a moment before finally speaking up. "I can see now why this is so cloak and dagger. If Cloud knew about Aeris's transformation… things could get bad."

Nanaki nodded in agreement. "I don't know what he'd do, other than quite obviously overreact."

"Agreed," Cait whispered. "That poor girl… Do you think that somehow… she's being possessed by Sephiroth? Or maybe it's possible she simply came back 'wrong'."

"I don't know what to think at this stage," Nanaki replied. "All I know is that the fewer of us that know the better."

"Who knows about this?"

Nanaki raised a paw and tapped mid air as if counting. "Obviously both you and myself… Vincent… Cid cause he was there… that's it for now, just the four of us."

"I still need more information…" Cith pondered a second. "I wonder if I can get Cloud to talk about the ruins he found her in. Any details about that place could provide me with the clues I need to unravel this mystery."

Nanaki smiled. "I know how much you enjoy mysteries and puzzles. If you find anything, let me or Vincent know."

"Will do."

* * *

"Aeris," Cloud whispered to her sleeping form. He kneeled by her bed as she lay wrapped in her sheets. Out of respect, Cid didn't try to dress her when he brought her here but made sure she was completely covered before anyone else saw her. She was still unconscious, and her normally serene expression when she slept was replaced by a look of sadness. Vincent stood behind him leaning against the doorframe impassively.

"What happened," Cloud asked him.

"She got brave," he responded. "She tried to follow you, but was attacked by something else. Cid was with her and they fought it off. She used some extremely powerful fire spell and incinerated the target but apparently, she wasn't immune to her own effects. Thankfully, she only got the equivalent of a minor sunburn but lost her clothes in the flames."

Cloud grimaced at the explanation. "She's always getting herself into trouble…" His head bowed. "This is the sort of thing I would have expected out of Yuffie, not her… but I should know better by now shouldn't I."

"She cares a lot about you," he responded. "Had I know what was happening I would have endeavored to stop her."

"I know Vincent, I know." He paused a moment gathering is thoughts. "What the hell did she fight?"

"According to Cid, something that called itself Tyranus the Architect."

* * *

**Tower of Fanatics, That Moment**

Standing at the top of the tower, Sephiroth took in the evidence with a look of one quite perturbed. He could sense traces of his energy everywhere.

"Merton," he whispered. "I'm the only one who knows that spell… and yet, someone with my energy signature was here recently and used it."

He examined the scorch marks with great care. "Whoever used this magic is connected to me somehow. I felt their pain. My body reacted when they reached into their reserves of power and summoned the wing." He growled low. "Who am I connected to, and how?"

The dust and debris form a set of wave patterns from a central location, meaning it was more than likely someone on the airship. "It couldn't have been Cloud… but someone in his crew." This didn't make any sense to him. To his knowledge there weren't anymore clones of him, no more remnants he didn't control. So who on his crew inherited his power?

But what disturbed him more was that the artifact was here, the one they took from the ruins near Miranda. Why would they bring it with them to the tower? He only sensed traces of the energy from the artifact on the roof of the tower.

As he continued to scour the roof for clues he came across something that looked familiar to him; a single piece of a pink dress and pieces of a leather jacket. He kneeled down and examined them a moment. He noted the edges look charred and burnt.

"Aeris," he whispered in utter disdain. "So, Cloud has found you again has he? Well, it looks like I'll be dealing with you much sooner than I thought…"

* * *

**End of Chapter VI

* * *

**

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"

* * *

_

**A/N:** I had gotten into the habit of adding sub-headings for location and time relevant to the story when I did tempest aterna. While so far I had avoided using them her, this chapter needed them so I'm starting to utilize them again. _  
_


	7. Evil Never Dies

**VII: Evil Never Dies**

* * *

With a massive crash, three motorcycles broke though the main doors to New Shinra Tower leaving glass to rain down all over the lobby. Several security officers pulled out their guns while others closer to the doors looked for cover. One was unlucky enough to be standing near the doors when the three burst in, getting run down by a massive wheel. The results weren't pretty.

"Alarm!" one of them yelled. "Fire at will! Don't let them leave the Lobby alive!" That was about all he got out before he took a bullet between the eyes from Yazoo's Velvet Nightmare. The second pistol was still in the holster on Loz's leg. At the same instant, Loz set his Dual Hound to ready mode and with a blurr of blue shadow trails rushed another guard punching him hard enough with his unarmed hand to shatter five of his ribs.

When the shots finally did begin to ring out, they were all trained on Kadaj who calmly jumped off his bike, drew Souba and deflected the shots with little effort.

Rufus watched this display on a security screen in the main security office near his. Although he seemed calm and impassive, inside he was a concerned about the loss of life.

"Of all the times for Cloud to be out of touch…." he mused. Turning towards his security chief his voice got harder and louder. "Anything?"

"No Mr. President," he said. "Still no response from Avalanche, its like their out of cell range.

"Impossible," he replied. "Our range is the entire world. Try again! And see if you can find the Turks while you're at it."

"But sir, the Turks can't stand up to these guys!"

"I know," he said with a lower voice. His tone indicated the near sound of defeat his mind was calculating would soon happen. "But maybe they can slow them down long enough to figure out what their target is."

"Yes Mr. President."

Chaos had completely erupted at this point. The brothers continued to tear the tower apart seemingly without any trouble at all. It was on the third level however that they found their goal. This level was made into a museum of sorts, designed to show old Cetra artifacts that were used in many research projects to help understand their culture and the true nature of their power. Many such cases lined the walls in the individual rooms. It was in the central room, in a small display case that they had found what they were looking for.

Wasting no time, Loz smashed opened the case and took the orb fragment.

"Got it," he said. "So boring… nothing poses any real threat. I wanted to play with the bald guy again!"

"Stop whining Loz," Kadaj snapped as he snatched away the fragment. "So much trouble over such a little thing." Then he heard the line up of security forces behind them.

The brothers turned towards the firing line as their bikes materialized next to them.

"That's as far as you go," a familiar voice stated.

Kadaj recognized it immediately. "Well well, President Shinra! I almost didn't recognize you without all the bandages."

"Nightmare Junior," he replied. "I was hopping our last meeting truly would be our last. Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"You wish," he replied. "But no bother at this point. We already have what we came for."

"That trinket?" Rufus couldn't believe they'd go though all this for such a seemingly worthless item.

"Yes. Obviously, you don't realize its true value. However, I'm not going to instruct you in the true purpose that was designed for it." His face turned into a sneer. "Now back away."

"Don't tell me you're trying to bring him back again," he deadpanned. "I thought you'd learned that lesson the last time."

Rufus shifted uncomfortably as Kadaj let slip an evil chuckle.

"What makes you think he isn't already back?" The idea that this could be true chilled Rufus to the core. With Cloud out of touch, the prospect of having to deal with all three of the remnants and Sephiroth himself was beyond daunting. "Now, back off… unless you want more death on your conscience."

Rufus considered his position a moment. He knew the security force wouldn't last long against the brothers, and he himself did not posses the require strength to stop them.

"Do it," he ordered. As the security detail lowered their weapons, the brothers jumped on their bikes and rode past them down the stairwell and out the doors of the tower. They headed straight for the wastelands again.

"Get Avalanche on the line," he ordered. "I don't care how long it takes! We need to stop this before they succeed at whatever it is they're up to."

* * *

**The Shera**

* * *

Kyrie looked around her new room on The Shera and sighed. It was a lot smaller than her apartment back on Earth was but this was to be expected. This was an Airship and not a flying hotel after all, although with all the available rooms for guests that the ship boasted, she figured it could very well be a flying hotel if Cid wanted it to be.

At this point however, any room would be sufficient to try to get her bearings back. Now that they had left the tower again, the source of dark energy that was flowing into her soul was cut off, leaving her feeling very drained. Celes was recovering from her injuries, and as far as she was told, this girl Aeris was also recovering from something herself. She still hadn't met her, and from what she was told about her, she was eager to do so. But while she was still recovering from her ordeal at the tower, Kyrie decided it would be best to wait on that.

As she sat on her bed, she heard a knock on her door. "Come in," the young Esper said. She really didn't want a visitor right now, but she didn't want to be rude either.

When the door opened, she saw a man she'd only heard mentioned until now.

"Hello Kyrie," he said in a calm and even tone.

"Hi," she responded in kind. "You must be Mr. Valentine."

"Please, call me Vincent."

Kyrie nodded. "Very well, Vincent. What can I do for you?"

His eyes drifted towards a chair leaning against her wall. "Do you mind," he asked as he gestured towards it.

"Be my guest, it's more your ship than mine." As he reached for the chair she noticed the unusual clawed gauntlet on his left hand. She wondered if it was part of his wardrobe or if it was a permanent fixture, like Barret's cybernetic replacement.

He pulled the chair towards the middle of the room and sat in it. "I didn't get a chance to speak with you earlier."

"No offense," she replied, "but I got the impression from your friends that you weren't too much into being social. Not that I mind though, I still feel a bit new here."

"It is to be expected," he responded, "but you are correct… I usually keep to myself until I'm needed. However in this case, I thought it would be best to try to establish a working relationship with you. I may have need of your talents to help a mutual friend."

Kyrie thought for a moment. "Aeris?" Vincent nodded. "Is something wrong with her?"

"We don't know for certain, but we figured you'd be able to help us find out for absolute certain. Avalanche has not survived this long by taking foolhardy gambles with each other's lives."

"But why me?" she asked. "Celes would be better suited to this kind of thing… I… I'm still kind of a novice at this. I've only been at this for a couple of years."

"Celes needs time to heal," he responded as if he knew she would ask that. "We have a dreadful feeling this won't wait either. We would appreciate any input you could provide for us."

Kyrie sighed. She really wanted to just take a shower and crash out for a few hours, but she wasn't one to leave her friends hanging while she took care of her own petty weakness. She stood up and walked up to Vincent. "Deep body scans can be taxing. Can I count on you if something goes wrong?" Vincent nodded. "Then lead on."

Vincent stood up and began to lead her though the ship to Aeris's meager room. Cloud and Tifa were still inside. Tifa was leaning on the wall next to the door while Cloud was standing in the middle of the room near the bedside watching the young Cetra sleep.

Kyrie looked now upon the young Cetra. She had to admit, she was angelically beautiful… he hair was loose now, and seemed only to enhance the look of innocent beauty. It was enough to make Kyrie sigh softly. While Kyrie didn't think of her own gender that way, she had to admit that some things just transcended preference. Aeris's covers stopped about mid shoulder, revealing her perfect skin and she wondered just how it would feel on her fuzzy fingertips.

Her experience with Nash had changed her in many ways. She didn't trust men the same way on an unconscious level, though she trusted Avalanche implicitly. Because of this, she started seeing beauty in her own gender she would have simply ignored as irrelevant before, and Aeris was beautiful on so many levels that she instantly felt an attraction to the girl.

Kyrie shook the thoughts from her mind… she was here to help her, not drool over her. She chaste herself and approached slowly. She looked towards Cloud, wondering if he noticed the way she reacted to the Cetra but the look on his face was more of concern for his friend, giving no indication that he had any idea. Inwardly, she was happy that her fur hid any traces of the blush that was forming on her face.

"I hope you can help," he whispered.

"I'll try my best," she replied at the same volume. Kyrie finally reached the bed and considered the Cetra for a moment more before holding her hands over her. She trembled ever so slightly, as if touching her was something she needed to be extra careful with. Without further hesitation she placed one hand on her forehead and one on her upper chest. The soft skin of her forehead was warm, probably far warmer than it should be, and as soft as she expected, perhaps more so.

She took a deep breath then exhaled slowly, centering herself for what was probably going to be a difficult scan. As she focused, the skin beneath her hands sudden turned cold as ice. The chill quickly traveled up her arms and struck her spine directly.

Kyrie sucked in a breath quickly as her whole body began to tremble. She thought she heard Cloud say something but the ambient sounds around her began to rapidly fade away. Her feelings turned into a chaotic jumble as she opened her eyes and looked at what she saw beneath her.

The first thing she noticed was that the fur over her hands and arms was gone. She felt more like she did a while ago… human, but now human with incredible power. The lack of fur intensified the coldness of the air itself making her shiver. She fought it off, trying to regain her concentration on the scan.

Aeris was still lying before her, but she looked different now. Her hair had changed to silvery white strands that made her look even more angelic, but the lack of calm feelings only heightened her discomfort. Her eyes opened, and she saw they were the most beautiful green she had ever seen. She seemed to remember a similar color to Clouds eyes once or twice but not nearly this intense. As she looked on trying to calm herself down and focus on her task Aeris began to sit up, her eyes focused on Kyrie turning into almost cat-like slits. The Esper found she couldn't look away as if she were being hypnotized by those inhuman eyes. They were piercing her very soul and yet she couldn't tear herself away, regardless of how hard she tried to.

After a moment, the impassive face of the Cetra smiled warmly at her as Kyrie finally pulled her hands away from the girl. Aeris's right hand had come up at the same time to hold the sheet up that kept her covered. Then to Kyrie's surprise a single black angelic wing pulled itself from her back on the left side and wrapped around her in a seemingly protective gesture. Kyrie's heart began beating rapidly and she was suddenly warm, rather than cold. She felt comfortable, as if inside a protective blanket.

'Why hasn't anyone responded to this yet!' part of her mind screamed, as the Cetra brought her face closer to Kyrie's. The Cetra's left hand took her left arm and pulled her closer as her eyes began to slowly close. It looked as if the Cetra was trying to kiss her. Kyrie for all her mystical strength and will was unable to resist as she was brought closer to her. The fur on Kyrie's face was gone replaced with the soft skin she always had beneath as their face edged ever closer to each other. Part of Kyrie's mind was still trying to resist this, but Kyrie's heart wanted it to happen, desired to be loved by the Cetra.

With a gasp, reality smashed down like a sledgehammer and she found herself back where she started; with her hands on the sleeping Cetra. There were no signs that what she witnessed a moment ago ever actually happened, but in the same moment her strength completely left her causing her to collapse backwards. Cloud being the closest managed to catch her and set her down in a sitting position leaning her against him. Tifa jumped from the wall and Vincent began to approach.

"What happened?" Cloud asked seemingly disparate. Tifa hovered over looking concerned.

Kyrie caught her breath with a soft gasp after a moment as Vincent leaned in closer to her. "I…" she whispered. "I don't know. She's getting her strength back… that's for certain… but the imagery, I didn't understand any of it really. I'll have to meditate on it. Hey, Vinny… I can call you that right?" He nodded. "Can you take me back to my room, I can't make it on my own."

He scooped her up gently being careful to make sure he wasn't dragging her massive mane of hair. He was amazed at how little she seemed to weigh and how fragile she seemed.

"Wait, Kyrie!" Cloud said. Vincent turned back to face Cloud and Kyrie turned her head slightly to look at him. "How long?"

It was a simple question but the answer was not. She couldn't really determine from what she saw how long the Cetra had left, but if she was the cause of the sudden power drain….

"Not long," she whispered. "Maybe a day, maybe less." Kyrie moaned softly as her body suddenly felt the strain of her exertions catch up to her. No longer able to fight it she winced in pain.

Cloud nodded, indicating he was satisfied for now. Quickly, Vincent took her back to her room and laid her down on her bed. Kyrie figured he would just leave her here but he swiftly and quietly closed her door then turned back to her. In a hushed tone he then spoke to her.

"What did you see?"

Kyrie looked away for a moment before sighing. "She became different, her hair was silvery white and her eyes were same green I sometimes see in Cloud's eyes, only with cat-slits. I tried to pull myself away but I was drawn to those eyes like a moth to the flame. She sat up and grew a black wing then embraced me with it." She noticed Vincent's eyes widen ever so slightly at that. "Then she tried to kiss me… I think… I'm not certain. Whatever she did though, I couldn't resist it. Also, I started becoming more like my human illusion again… then suddenly the vision shattered and I felt like all my remaining energy drained away all at once."

Vincent kneeled next to her bed. "Please don't speak with Cloud about this… in fact, don't discuss this with anyone other than myself, Sith, or Cid."

Kyrie frowned. "Why all the secrecy? This doesn't make me very comfortable with this situation at all. I'm new here… I don't want to get caught up in some kind of conspiracy."

Vincent nodded his agreement. "I hate to put you in this position but it has to be this way." He sighed quietly. "Let me explain why. I'll tell you about a great nightmare, the man that almost destroyed the world twice…."

Kyrie listened as Vincent related his story. He left nothing out, going as far back as the experiments on Lucrecia that created Sephiroth, about how he was in Soldier, and how great a man he was until the day he learned of his true origins.

Kyrie's heart beat faster as he explained what Sephiroth tried to do, about how he nearly destroyed the world twice, how he nearly corrupted the Lifestream itself and used it to fuel his attempt at godhood. He spoke of Geostigma, the remnants, and the legacy of Jenova. At the end of his story, Kyrie knew fear, but a part of her didn't want to believe that Aeris had become dark like him. But maybe…

… and then it hit her, an idea as to why she came back and why she may have come back this way, but she had little evidence to support her theory.

"What is it?" he asked, causing Kyrie to look up.

"I think I know what happened now." Vincent leaned closer to hear the Esper's theory. "Aeris had died, and so did Sephiroth, both were in the Lifestream but both of them have very strong wills and are powerful souls. They didn't dissipate into the Lifestream, instead they remained individuals within it. Aeris could easily thwart anything Sephiroth tried to do within the Lifestream itself, effectively being his jailor.

"But somehow, Sephiroth found a way to get her out of the picture. In doing so he could condense the personae of the remnants and use the Lifestream to create bodies for them, then set about his own resurrection now that he has been dead twice."

"Impossible, the dead can not bring themselves back."

"Normally Vinny, I'd agree with you, however an ancestor of mine stated that once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth. With the nature of the Lifestream being what it is, I tell you now that self-resurrection is not impossible… just very difficult. Theoretically, if a soul could remain separate from the Lifestream and even retain some control over what it can do there, then it can gather the energy needed to bring itself back into the world of the living."

Vincent immediately realized the implications of this. "So when Sephiroth essentially booted Aeris out of the Lifestream, he inadvertently imprinted part of himself into her. But that doesn't explain why the wing is showing up on the wrong side."

Kyrie smiled slightly. As scary as this was, she did enjoy a good metaphysical puzzle. "Two possibilities," she replied quickly, "either she's essentially become his other half or…."

"Or?"

"Is Sephiroth right-handed or left-handed?"

"Left… I see what you're saying, but Angeal was right-handed and his wing was on the right side"

"True , but he was a 'perfect strain' as you put it," she countered. "All of the other subjects of Project G and Project S for that matter were imperfect."

"Is that all it is, or is she really a mirror aspect of Sephiroth?"

"Don't know," Kyrie admitted. "Right now I'm just working on theories. I can't prove any of this yet. All I know is that she needs help, and I already know I'm going to do everything in my power to help her though this."

Vincent raised an eyebrow at the expression of determination from the young Esper. "Oh?"

"Oh, what?" Kyrie retorted.

"Perhaps Aeris had more of an effect on you than you think," he replied.

"What exactly do you mean… by…" she stopped remembering the touch, the near kiss, the protective gesture. Kyrie wanted to think it was just a hallucination, or that her mind was trying to perceive something that wasn't there. If that was true though it could mean one thing… she was falling in love with someone of her own gender that she knew nothing about.

"I think my point has been made," Vincent stood back up. "Personally, I have no idea if Aeris would be willing to reciprocate your feelings, though if the vision you received came from her I'd call it highly probable at least."

"I… I never considered myself like that," Kyrie knew she was blushing hard beneath her fur and was once again glad it couldn't be seen. But it almost seemed like Vincent sensed it and tried to refrain from making it worse.

"Have you had any bad experiences with men?" Kyrie's eyes snapped to Vincent and the look on her face told him what he needed to know. "Then you know why now. I'll let you rest, I've kept you awake far longer than I should have."

Without another word, he left. Kyrie sighed softly now that she was alone.

"Wow… did I really turn into a lesbian over that?" But when she started remembering what Nash did to her, she shuddered and fought back tears, forcing the images from her mind. Sighing raggedly this time she understood what Vincent was saying.

He was right….

* * *

**Beneath the Ruins of Kefka's Tower**

* * *

"Hey hurry it up!" one of the workers called out.

"I still can't believe we're actually trying this," another one stated as he hefted a massive drill. "We have to be out of our minds."

It was a large operation; at least 20 men with heavy equipment under the rubble that used to be the seat of power for the man made God, Kefka Palazzo. They brought their machines and built rails to move material out of the tunnels faster. It has been going on for the better part of a year now.

"You've been saying that for a while now Eddie," the first worker replied. "We've had to hear it almost every day for a very long time, now just shut the fuck up and get to work.

Eddie was a desperate man. His wife Elizabeth was getting weaker every day, and while there were few places that could still grow the life giving medicine she needed to survive, there were still supplies. But those that held the supplies refused to let it go for less than 1000 pieces of gold a bottle. Sure a bottle would last for 3 months, but when survival costs nearly 4000 pieces of gold a year, you get desperate.

Eddie was now with this operation for his fifth consecutive month. He kept getting very bad feelings about this place. It didn't help that some of the workers thought it was haunted, or that they heard and / or saw things they couldn't explain. Since this operation began, three people disappeared. But they already pulled out lots of things that made them all lots of money. One or two more good finds and Eddie could buy two bottles of the medicine for his wife. Knowing this kept him working. Elizabeth was everything to him.

He punched the drill into the wall with great force, turing the RPM's up as high as he could without blowing the drill's transmission. Suddenly the drill sunk in to the hilt causing him to nearly fall forward. He cut the throttle instantly, reflexes honed from doing this kind of work at other cities like Miranda and Albrook.

"What is it?" the first worker replied.

"Holy shit Tom," he replied. "There's nothing on the other side of this wall."

Tom instantly sprang from his position and started hammering into the wall with his Pickaxe until it crumbled, revealing a huge opening with a metal floor.

"Holy shit," Tom said upon seeing this. "Jackpot!" He whistled up to get the rest of the worker's attention. Within minutes a veritable army of workers entered the passageway and started setting up portable lights.

"What is this place," Eddie asked, pushing his long blonde hair from his face.

"This might be the Magi-Tek Research Facility that used to be beneath Vector," Tom replied. "I'll be fucked if it isn't. We fuckin' did it! We struck gold! With what we'll find down here, we'll all be rich beyond our wildest dreams!"

For a scant moment, Eddie felt the fear he had melt away, realizing that he was now in the perfect position to help his wife recover. But then it struck him… a dark sensation that he tried to ignore before but it only got worse as the moments passed. Something was very wrong.

Tom had already moved on and the workers were beginning to split up to loot and pillage. Eddie however felt the sudden, overwhelming urge to hide in the shadows and did so without even flinching at the thought.

Deep inside the factory, one of the men came upon a wicked looking statue of an angel. But something was off about it. It had six wings but the two lowest and smallest looked devilish rather than angelic. Worse yet, the figure had a glasgow smile and a long feather from its hair that accentuated the angel's ponytail. Imbedded in the chest of the statue was an intricate sword seemingly crafted of a golden metal.

"Mine," he whispered greedily as he placed his hands on the gold hilt. In his blind greed he didn't even think about what it was he was seeing, he didn't even think that this sword may be imbedded into the statue for a reason, and he certainly didn't even give it a second look when he ripped the blade out and turned around to better see it in the light.

Behind him, the statue's skin started changing color from stone hue to nearly pale white skin. Rather than an angelic look the wings flaked apart and the body began to be covered in actual clothing, though the style choice would give many a headache as the color prints clashed reds and yellows with stripes and polka-dots. Red makeup covered the areas around the figure's eyes and lips as his grin seemed to widen impossibly.

The man saw none of this focusing on his new find. Suddenly the blade burned in his hand as if it thought him unworthy of it. He dropped it only to watch the blade disappear into golden mist.

"The hell?" he said to himself as he examines his hands. He had received burns and was far to preoccupied with them to realize what had happened behind him until he heard a light chuckle that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He turned to see this mad clown stare back at him. "Thanks!" he said with sadisitic glee. "That was really starting to chafe my cardiac muscle. It kind of felt like this!" His hand reached back with his fingers held together as if to raise his hand in a gesture of stop, but rather than make a signal, the hand thrust forward like a blade and punched though the greedy man's chest. His sternum and his heart were split in two causing him to die almost as quickly. The mad clown pulled his bloody hand out of the worker's chest and idly watched the body hit the ground. Blue flame erupted around the clown's hand and the blood evaporated, leaving nothing behind.

He idly looked at that hand. "Well now that is interesting," he said to himself. "I was killed, and yet some of the power of magic has not left me… in fact I seem to have kept much of it. Oh this is delightful!" he laughed manically again. This attracted the attention of other workers in the area who came to investigate. By the time they reached this area though, there were no signs of who was laughing, only the dead worker.

"Holy shit," one of them said. "What got Ryan? He's all fucked up!"

One of the workers suddenly burst into flames in the midst of the pack. He screamed, grabbing for buddies to help him only to set them on fire. As the others tried to put the fires out amidst multiple burns and the now charred and dead body, the laughing started up again.

Tom, who was a part of this group, looked up to where he heard the laughing and his eyes widened in absolute terror.

"Oh dear god no!" he cried out. "This can't be!"

"Oooo!" the mad clown called out. "Someone down there knows me! You get a prize! You get to die last." More maniac laughter poured out of his mouth as he snapped his fingers. Someone 5' away from Tom was the epi-center of a Flare spell. The explosion blew his body apart showering the others with gore, half-burnt gore and gore that was still burning.

Panic ensued as the survivors raced for the hole in the wall to escape this madness. When they got there, the hole was closing on its own.

"Better hurry!" the clown yelled to them. One of the men managed to crawl halfway out before it closed to much for him to escape, he screamed for help before his screams turned to pain as the pinching matter cut him in half above the waist. "Whoops! Too late!"

As the laughter continued the men broke and ran in different directions, hoping to find some way to escape, but one by one they each befell a terrible fate. Until all that was left was Tom who stopped where he was and fell to his knees breathing hard. He knew it was too late, that there was no escape from this madman. Soon the echoes of laughter began to come closer and Tom simply waited for the inevitable.

"Got tired of running did you? Well that's no fun."

"Why bother," he retorted. "I'm dead either way. "

"It been a very long time hasn't it. I'm surprised to see someone remembers who I am." The mad clown conjured up a gaudy throne before Tom and appeared in it; his legs were crossed and he was leaning on one hand with an almost bored expression. "I suppose though it says a lot about the impression I made on this pathetic little world eh?" he chuckled slightly at that.

"Indeed," Tom replied. "Even today, there are few who don't remember the name of Kefka Palazzo."

He clapped his hands excitedly. "Oh and you even know my surname! How delightful! It's so refreshing to find someone with an actual head on their shoulders." He chuckled again. "So tell me… how has the world gotten along without me?"

Tom's head felt like it was going to explode as images passed before his eyes before they were ripped from his mind. He grabbed his head, tried to stop it, but Kefka was far too powerful for that. A few moments later, Tom was gasping for air and his head felt like it just came out of a steel vice.

"That good huh? Well I almost succeeded in bringing my plans to fruition. So close and now, even after all these centuries, my work is still not finished."

"Work?" Tom gasped out. "What… what the fuck…"

"Oh, so that's something you didn't know. You didn't know why I did it! Why I built a massive tower, an edifice for my supreme godliness to rest upon and lord over my realm, while I randomly burned away life with the Light of Judgment. No one outside those Returner scumbags knew what I was trying to accomplish huh. I thought I made my intentions quite clear… alas, I guess I wasn't trying hard enough."

Tom sat up. "Why?" he asked simply. Tom figured if he was doomed to die here, at least he would die knowing what the point of it all was.

"I'll tell you," Kefka replied leaning forward to get closer to his latest victim. "I did it for the sole purpose of destruction itself. I was slowly but surely destroying this world, killing every living thing, absorbing every bit of life and light in the world, and when I was done, I would pierce the Æther between worlds and find another to destroy, and then another… and another… and another… until existence itself had no meaning. My only purpose is kill, and ruin, and destroy, and devour all the life and souls of every world to bring about a great monument to non-existence. And then, when all has been purged, when there is truly nothing left but me… I will simply allow myself to cease to be."

"What?" Tom gasped upon realizing the scope of this madman's desires. Kefka laughed in his face, a manic, chaotic and seemingly out of control fit of laughing that was all consuming. It was the kind of laugh that made your soul desire to rip itself from your body and run in abject terror away from its source. But Tom knew Kefka wasn't laughing because it was some kind of sick joke… he was laughing because it was precisely what he was planning… he would become the great destroyer and end existence itself if he had half a chance.

"You're… you're completely mad!"

Kefka instantly stopped laughing. The sudden lurching stop of manic laughter to complete silence was even more chilling than the laugh itself and Tom found that he wanted nothing more than to hide in some dark hole and hope to be spared from this psycho.

"You are merely stating the obvious my dear Thomas," he said with all the pomp and manner of a rich Englishman. "And I've just come to realize how incredibly droll and boring you are. Kefka sat up kicking his throne back away from him as it exploded into blue flames. The sudden motion made Tom flinch. "You are weak, and the weak have no purpose other than to be exploited and/or eliminated. Goodbye Tom, you shall quickly be forgotten."

With a snap of his fingers, a massive torrent of electrical energy tore up from the ground beneath Tom. The energy made him jolt and twitch for a bit until his eyes exploded in their sockets and his skin melted off. After a few moments, only charred remains marked the place where he was.

"Well I appear to be done here," Kefka said to himself. "But I still have a lot of work to do. My revival means that magic is now freed upon the world once again. But first things first… I sense a place with great heaping helpings of life… and daddy want!"

As if he was simply walking along he faded into blue energy as he slipped into the Æther and traversed the barrier between worlds with little effort.

In the darkness, Eddie stood up, still clutching his drill.

"Damn," he whispered. "I fucking hate it when I'm right."

He looked around seeing himself as the only survivor of the incident, the only man with knowledge of Kefka's rebirth.

"How the hell did he miss me?" he asked himself. "Well, no matter. I know there are others who must know about this."

Eddie left that horrid place and returned to the surface, having drilled a new way out. With his drill slung over his back he approached one of the Chocobo driven carts and placed it in the back along with the rest of his tools. Before setting off, he released the other Chocobos who now were without owners and let them run. Returning to his wagon, he patted his birds as they nuzzled him, almost as if they were worried and needed to be reassured.

"We have a long trip ahead of us," he whispered as he climbed up top and opened a larger box. "Luckily, I never travel without proper weaponry." He pulled out his spear and a special tinkered weapon that was basically a fully automatic crossbow. He loaded a bolt magazine into the weapon and drew back the main bolt. The weapon made a sound as it powered up. "I've got to get to Narshe on the fly, maybe I can find help there."

* * *

**End of Chapter VII**

* * *

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside_

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone_

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become…_

_- Evanescence, "Bring Me to Life"_

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**A/N:** I still after all this time own nothing.

Well it has been a bit hasn't it? I know I've been neglecting so many of my stories, but I finally managed to get some time to write again and decided this was where I would get myself back into the swing of it again. Odd place? Maybe, but this story has been a part of me for a long time. It's finally starting to take shape here.

For the longest time, over a year if I'm not too mistaken, I had this posted and not a single review was written. Undeterred, I pushed forward and continued writing for a bit before other projects became more important (Read: more popular, were getting reviews and people actually seemed to give a shit about it). All that changed a bit ago when the first reviews started popping up as I began the major rewrite of the first few chapters.

Technically speaking at this point I've caught up to where I was in the story before. However if any of you read the original version, you probably see a lot of differences, none the least of which is the new character named Eddie. Yes he's new and you probably see a resemblance to the popular Final Fantasy VI character, Edgar Roni Figaro, though in reality he's probably closer to a cross between Edgar and Locke (one of his lines is reminiscent of one of Locke's lines in the game, and yeah, that was intentional).

At this point, any additional material written for this story is material that was planned but never written even in its basic form before.

Some of you guys might be wondering if I'm planning on doing a lemon for this story. Truthfully, I'm undecided. I'm not all that good with them (in my opinion), but the few that I've done were well received. I probably won't go there but who knows. If I do, the chapter will be clearly marked as a lemon chapter since I know not everyone likes reading them.

So this is longer winded than I wanted it to be. If anyone is wondering about my other stores; at this point I've got about half of the next chapter of Bloodlust done, about half of the next chapter of Too Human done, and the first major part of the next chapter of Adrift done. Sadly, another project has been milling in my head but I'm desperately trying to ignore it in favor of finishing one of my four incomplete stories.

Anyways, thank you very much for the read and hope to see you next chapter.

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**Review Responses**

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I only had one actual reviewer but two reviews for this story.

**Marikalay:** First of all, thank you so much for reviewing this. I was hoping at least someone out there might enjoy it.

I want to apologize for the story not being as easy to follow as some of my other ones. I started writing this piece a very long time ago, and as a result it was not very well written. I rewrote it a few times but there may have still been some errant pieces that were part of the original.

As to your comment about people from FF6 not being in it; the idea behind this was that it takes place a long time after the events of FF6. Chronologically, the FF7 events took place long after the fact. Celes's unique make up allowed her to transcend death and Terra probably could have done the same but she didn't make it. Everyone else was just a straight up human for the most part and so couldn't be expected to live that long. That said, resurrections are not unlikely, and if it makes sense in the context of the story (such as Kefka's return) then I have no problem bringing them back in… could be interesting to do it after all.

Any preferences?


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